Creating databases

Syntax#

CREATE {DATABASE | SCHEMA} [IF NOT EXISTS] db_name [create_specification] /// To create database
DROP {DATABASE | SCHEMA} [IF EXISTS] db_name /// To drop database

Parameters#

Parameter	Details
CREATE DATABASE	Creates a database with the given name
CREATE SCHEMA	This is a synonym for `CREATE DATABASE`
IF NOT EXISTS	Used to avoid execution error, if specified database already exists
create_specification	`create_specification` options specify database characteristics such as `CHARACTER SET` and `COLLATE`(database collation)
## Create database, users, and grants
Create a DATABASE. Note that the shortened word SCHEMA can be used as a synonym.

CREATE DATABASE Baseball; -- creates a database named Baseball

If the database already exists, Error 1007 is returned. To get around this error, try:

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS Baseball;

Similarly,

DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS Baseball; -- Drops a database if it exists, avoids Error 1008
DROP DATABASE xyz; -- If xyz does not exist, ERROR 1008 will occur

Due to the above Error possibilities, DDL statements are often used with IF EXISTS.

One can create a database with a default CHARACTER SET and collation. For example:

CREATE DATABASE Baseball CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

SHOW CREATE DATABASE Baseball;
+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Database | Create Database                                                   |
+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Baseball | CREATE DATABASE `Baseball` /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 */ |
+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

See your current databases:

SHOW DATABASES;
+---------------------+
| Database            |
+---------------------+
| information_schema  |
| ajax_stuff          |
| Baseball            |
+---------------------+

Set the currently active database, and see some information:

USE Baseball; -- set it as the current database
SELECT @@character_set_database as cset,@@collation_database as col;
+------+-----------------+
| cset | col             |
+------+-----------------+
| utf8 | utf8_general_ci |
+------+-----------------+

The above shows the default CHARACTER SET and Collation for the database.

Create a user:

CREATE USER 'John123'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'OpenSesame';

The above creates a user John123, able to connect with any hostname due to the % wildcard. The Password for the user is set to ‘OpenSesame’ which is hashed.

And create another:

CREATE USER 'John456'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'somePassword';

Show that the users have been created by examining the special mysql database:

SELECT user,host,password from mysql.user where user in ('John123','John456');
+---------+------+-------------------------------------------+
| user    | host | password                                  |
+---------+------+-------------------------------------------+
| John123 | %    | *E6531C342ED87 ....................       |
| John456 | %    | *B04E11FAAAE9A ....................       |
+---------+------+-------------------------------------------+

Note that at this point, the users have been created, but without any permissions to use the Baseball database.

Work with permissions for users and databases. Grant rights to user John123 to have full privileges on the Baseball database, and just SELECT rights for the other user:

GRANT ALL ON Baseball.* TO 'John123'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON Baseball.* TO 'John456'@'%';

Verify the above:

SHOW GRANTS FOR 'John123'@'%';
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for John123@%                                                                                   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'John123'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '*E6531C342ED87 ....................        |
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `baseball`.* TO 'John123'@'%'                                                  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

SHOW GRANTS FOR 'John456'@'%';
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for John456@%                                                                                   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'John456'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '*B04E11FAAAE9A ....................        |
| GRANT SELECT ON `baseball`.* TO 'John456'@'%'                                                          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Note that the GRANT USAGE that you will always see means simply that the user may login. That is all that that means.

MyDatabase

You must create your own database, and not use write to any of the existing databases. This is likely to be one of the very first things to do after getting connected the first time.

CREATE DATABASE my_db;
USE my_db;
CREATE TABLE some_table;
INSERT INTO some_table ...;

You can reference your table by qualifying with the database name: my_db.some_table.

System Databases

The following databases exist for MySQL’s use. You may read (SELECT) them, but you must not write (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE) the tables in them. (There are a few exceptions.)

mysql — repository for GRANT info and some other things.
information_schema — The tables here are ‘virtual’ in the sense that they are actually manifested by in-memory structures. Their contents include the schema for all tables.
performance_schema — ?? [please accept, then edit]
others?? (for MariaDB, Galera, TokuDB, etc)

Creating and Selecting a Database

If the administrator creates your database for you when setting up your permissions, you can begin using it. Otherwise, you need to create it yourself:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE menagerie;

Under Unix, database names are case sensitive (unlike SQL keywords), so you must always refer to your database as menagerie, not as Menagerie, MENAGERIE, or some other variant. This is also true for table names. (Under Windows, this restriction does not apply, although you must refer to databases and tables using the same lettercase throughout a given query. However, for a variety of reasons, the recommended best practice is always to use the same lettercase that was used when the database was created.)

Creating a database does not select it for use; you must do that explicitly. To make menagerie the current database, use this statement:

mysql> USE menagerie
Database changed

Your database needs to be created only once, but you must select it for use each time you begin a mysql session. You can do this by issuing a USE statement as shown in the example. Alternatively, you can select the database on the command line when you invoke mysql. Just specify its name after any connection parameters that you might need to provide. For example:

shell> mysql -h host -u user -p menagerie
Enter password: ********