SQL in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Name

CREATE/ALTER DATABASE Statement

The ANSI standard does not actually contain a CREATE DATABASE statement. However, since it is nearly impossible to operate a SQL database without this command, we’ve added CREATE DATABASE here. Almost all database platforms support some version of this command.

Platform	Command
MySQL	Supported, with variations
Oracle	Supported, with variations
PostgreSQL	Supported, with variations
SQL Server	Supported, with variations

Rules at a Glance

This command creates a new, empty database with a specific name. Most DBMS platforms require the user to possess administrator privileges in order to create a new database. Once the new database is created, you can populate it with database objects (such as tables, views, triggers, and so on) and populate the tables with data.

Depending on the platform, CREATE DATABASE may also create corresponding files on the filesystem that contain the data and metadata of the database.

Programming Tips and Gotchas

Since CREATE DATABASE is not an ANSI command, it is prone to rather extreme variation in syntax between platforms.

MySQL

In MySQL, CREATE DATABASE essentially creates a new directory that holds the database objects:

CREATE { DATABASE | SCHEMA } [IF NOT EXISTS] database_name
   [ [DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET character_set ]
   [ [DEFAULT] COLLATE collation_set ]

The following is the syntax for MySQL’s implementation of the ALTER DATABASE statement:

ALTER { DATABASE | SCHEMA } database_name
{ [ [DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET character_set ] [ [DEFAULT] COLLATE ...