CREATE DATABASE

Function

CREATE DATABASE creates a database. By default, the new database will be created by cloning the standard system database template1. A different template can be specified using TEMPLATE template name.

Precautions

• A user that has the CREATEDB permission or a sysadmin can create a database.
• CREATE DATABASE cannot be executed inside a transaction block.
• Errors along the line of "could not initialize database directory" are most likely related to insufficient permissions on the data directory, a full disk, or other file system problems.

Syntax

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CREATE DATABASE database_name
    [ [ WITH ] { [ OWNER [=] user_name ] |
               [ TEMPLATE [=] template ] |
               [ ENCODING [=] encoding ] |
               [ LC_COLLATE [=] lc_collate ] |
               [ LC_CTYPE [=] lc_ctype ] |
               [ DBCOMPATIBILITY [=] compatibility_type ] |
               
               [ CONNECTION LIMIT [=] connlimit ]}[...] ];

Parameter Description

• database_name

  Indicates the database name.

  Value range: a string. It must comply with the naming convention.

• OWNER [ = ] user_name

  Indicates the owner of the new database. By default, the owner of the database is the current user.

  Value range: an existing user name

• TEMPLATE [ = ] template

  Indicates the template name, that is, the name of the template to be used to create the database. GaussDB(DWS) creates a database by coping a database template. GaussDB(DWS) has two default template databases template0 and template1 and a default user database gaussdb.

  Value range: An existing database name. If this it is not specified, the system copies template1 by default. Its value cannot be gaussdb.

  

  Currently, database templates cannot contain sequences. If a database template contains sequences, database creation using this template will fail.

• ENCODING [ = ] encoding

  Specifies the encoding format used by the new database. The value can be a string (for example, SQL_ASCII) or an integer.

  By default, the encoding format of the template database is used. The encoding formats of the template databases template0 and template1 vary based on OS environments by default. The template1 database does not allow encoding customization. To specify encoding for a database when creating it, use template0. To specify encoding, set template to template0.

  Common values: GBK, UTF8, and Latin1

  

  • To view the character encoding of the current database, run the show server_encoding; command.
  • To make your database compatible with most characters, you are advised to use the UTF8 encoding when creating a database.
  • The character set encoding of the new database must be compatible with the local settings (LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE).
  • When the specified character encoding set is GBK, some uncommon Chinese characters cannot be directly used as object names. This is because when the encoding range of the second byte of GBK is between 0x40 and 0x7E, the byte encoding overlaps with the ASCII character @A-Z[\]^_`a-z{|}. @[\]^_?{|} is an operator in the database. If it is directly used as an object name, a syntax error will be reported. For example, the GBK hexadecimal code is 0x8240, and the second byte is 0x40, which is the same as the ASCII character @. Therefore, the character cannot be used as an object name. If you really want to use it, you can avoid this problem by adding double quotation marks when creating and accessing objects.
  • In the current version, the GBK character set supports the character €, which is represented as 0x80 in hexadecimal code. You can use the € character in the GBK library, and the GBK character set of GaussDB(DWS) is compatible with the CP936 character set. Note that the GBK character set is approximately equal to the CP936 character set, but the GBK character set does not contain the definition of the character €.
• LC_COLLATE [ = ] lc_collate

  Specifies the collation order to use in the new database. For example, this parameter can be set using lc_collate = 'zh_CN.gbk'.

  The use of this parameter affects the sort order applied to strings, for example, in queries with ORDER BY, as well as the order used in indexes on text columns. The default is to use the collation order of the template database. To specify a character set when creating a database, use template0 to create the database. To specify encoding, set template to template0.

  Value range: A valid order type.

• LC_CTYPE [ = ] lc_ctype

  Specifies the character classification to use in the new database. For example, this parameter can be set using lc_ctype = 'zh_CN.gbk'. The use of this parameter affects the categorization of characters, for example, lower, upper and digit. The default is to use the character classification of the template database. To specify a character category when creating a database, use template0 to create the database. To specify encoding, set template to template0.

  Value range: A valid character type.

• DBCOMPATIBILITY [ = ] compatibilty_type

  Specifies the compatible database type.

  Value range: ORA, TD, and MySQL, representing the Oracle-, Teradata-, and MySQL-compatible modes, respectively. If this parameter is not specified, the default value ORA is used.

• CONNECTION LIMIT [ = ] connlimit

  Indicates the maximum number of concurrent connections that can be made to the new database.

  Value range: An integer greater than or equal to -1. The default value -1 means no limit.

  

  • This limit does not apply to sysadmin.
  • To ensure the proper running of a cluster, the minimum value of CONNECTION LIMIT is the number of CNs in the cluster, because when a cluster runs ANALYZE on a CN, other CNs will connect with the running CN for metadata synchronization. For example, if there are three CNs in the cluster, set CONNECTION LIMIT to 3 or a greater value.

The following are limitations on character encoding:

• If the locale is C (or equivalently POSIX), then all encoding modes are allowed, but for other locale settings only the encoding consistent with that of the locale will work properly.
• The encoding and locale settings must match those of the template database, except when template0 is used as template. This is because other databases might contain data that does not match the specified encoding, or might contain indexes whose sort ordering is affected by LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE. Copying such data would result in a database that is corrupt according to the new settings. template0, however, is known to not contain any data or indexes that would be affected.
• Supported encoding depends on the environment. If the message "invalid locale name" is displayed, run the locale -a command to check the encoding set supported by the environment.

Examples

Create database music using GBK (the local encoding type is also GBK).

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CREATE DATABASE music ENCODING 'GBK' template = template0;

Create database music2 and specify jim as its owner.

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CREATE DATABASE music2 OWNER jim;

Create database music3 using template template0 and specify jim as its owner.

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CREATE DATABASE music3 OWNER jim TEMPLATE template0;

Create a database compatible with Oracle.

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CREATE DATABASE ora_compatible_db DBCOMPATIBILITY 'ORA';

Helpful Links

ALTER DATABASE, DROP DATABASE