CREATE TABLE

Introduction#

The CREATE TABLE statement is used create a new table in the database. A table definition consists of a list of columns, their types, and any integrity constraints.

Syntax#

CREATE TABLE tableName( [ColumnName1] [datatype1] [, [ColumnName2] [datatype2] …] )

Parameters#

Parameter	Details
tableName	The name of the table
columns	Contains an ‘enumeration’ of all the columns that the table have. See Create a New Table for more details.
## Remarks#
Table names must be unique.
## Create a New Table
A basic `Employees` table, containing an ID, and the employee’s first and last name along with their phone number can be created using

CREATE TABLE Employees(
    Id int identity(1,1) primary key not null,
    FName varchar(20) not null,
    LName varchar(20) not null,
    PhoneNumber varchar(10) not null
);

This example is specific to Transact-SQL

CREATE TABLE creates a new table in the database, followed by the table name, Employees

This is then followed by the list of column names and their properties, such as the ID

Id int identity(1,1) not null

Value	Meaning
`Id`	the column’s name.
`int`	is the data type.
`identity(1,1)`	states that column will have auto generated values starting at 1 and incrementing by 1 for each new row.
`primary key`	states that all values in this column will have unique values
`not null`	states that this column cannot have null values

Create Table From Select

You may want to create a duplicate of a table:

CREATE TABLE ClonedEmployees AS SELECT * FROM Employees;

You can use any of the other features of a SELECT statement to modify the data before passing it to the new table. The columns of the new table are automatically created according to the selected rows.

CREATE TABLE ModifiedEmployees AS
SELECT Id, CONCAT(FName," ",LName) AS FullName FROM Employees
WHERE Id > 10;

Duplicate a table

To duplicate a table, simply do the following:

CREATE TABLE newtable LIKE oldtable; 
INSERT newtable SELECT * FROM oldtable;

CREATE TABLE With FOREIGN KEY

Below you could find the table Employees with a reference to the table Cities.

CREATE TABLE Cities(
    CityID INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    Name VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
    Zip VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE Employees(
    EmployeeID INT IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL,
    FirstName VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
    LastName VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
    PhoneNumber VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
    CityID INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Cities(CityID)
);

Here could you find a database diagram.

The column CityID of table Employees will reference to the column CityID of table Cities. Below you could find the syntax to make this.

CityID INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Cities(CityID)

Value	Meaning
`CityID`	Name of the column
`int`	type of the column
`FOREIGN KEY`	Makes the foreign key (optional)
`REFERENCES` `Cities(CityID)`	Makes the reference to the table `Cities` column `CityID`

Important: You couldn’t make a reference to a table that not exists in the database. Be source to make first the table Cities and second the table Employees. If you do it vise versa, it will throw an error.

Create a Temporary or In-Memory Table

PostgreSQL and SQLite

To create a temporary table local to the session:

CREATE TEMP TABLE MyTable(...);

SQL Server

To create a temporary table local to the session:

CREATE TABLE #TempPhysical(...);

To create a temporary table visible to everyone:

CREATE TABLE ##TempPhysicalVisibleToEveryone(...);

To create an in-memory table:

DECLARE @TempMemory TABLE(...);