SQL CREATE DATABASE Statement

The CREATE DATABASE statement is the SQL command used to create databases.

Example

CREATE DATABASE my_db;

Here, the SQL command creates a database named my_db.


SQL CREATE DATABASE Syntax

The syntax of the SQL CREATE DATABASE statement is:

CREATE DATABASE DB_NAME;

Here,

  • CREATE DATABASE command creates a database
  • DB_NAME is the name of the database created

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS

If a database already exists, SQL will throw an error while creating another database of the same name.

In such situations, we can use the CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS statement to create a database only if there is no existing database with the same name. For example,

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS my_db;

Here, the SQL command creates a database named my_db only if there is no existing database with the same name.


List all Databases

There could be multiple databases in a database management system. To show the list of databases, we can run the following statement.

SHOW DATABASES;

Here, the SQL command lists all the available databases in the DBMS.


Switch Databases

We often have to work with multiple databases. To switch between available databases, we can run the following statement.

USE my_db;

This code selects the my_db database, and all SQL operations will be performed inside this database.


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