MySQL in a Nutshell

Name

CREATE DATABASE

Synopsis

CREATE DATABASE [IF NOT EXISTS] database [options]

This statement creates a new database with the name given. You can use the IF NOT EXISTS flag to suppress an error message when the statement fails if a database with the same name already exists. As of Version 4.1.1, a db.opt file is added to the filesystem subdirectory created for the database in the MySQL server’s data directory. This file contains a couple of settings for the database. You can specify these settings as options to this SQL statement in a comma-separated list.

Currently, two options are available: CHARACTER SET and COLLATE. Here is an example of how you can create a database with both of these options:

CREATE DATABASE db1
   CHARACTER SET latin1
   COLLATE latin1_bin;

Unlike most lists of options, there is no comma between the first option and the second option. Below is the contents of the db.opt file created for this statement:

default-character-set=latin1
default-collation=latin1_bin

For a list of character sets, use the SHOW CHARACTER SET statement. For a list of collation possibilities, use the SHOW COLLATION statement.