Web Mapping Illustrated

Creating a Spatial Database

The template1 database is the default system template used when creating new databases. Don't use it as an operational database! Instead, create a new database for your projects. New databases are created using the command-line program createdb, followed by the name that identifies the new database:

> createdb project1
CREATE DATABASE

In this case, the new database is called project1. The text that is printed out (CREATE DATABASE) confirms that the command ran and finished. Now when existing databases are listed, project1 should be included:

> psql -l
       List of databases
    Name    |   Owner  | Encoding
------------+----------+-----------
 project1   | tyler    | SQL_ASCII
 template0  | postgres | SQL_ASCII
 template1  | postgres | SQL_ASCII
(3 rows)

The project1 database is now ready for data loading. To quit psql, use the \q command.