Creating Databases

To create a new database, use the  CREATE DATABASE statement.  The following statement creates a 
database named my_db:  


CREATE DATABASE my_db; 


If an attempt is made to create a database that already exists, an error occurs.  To ensure that the database 
exists, add an IF NOT EXISTS clause to the statement:  


CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS my_db; 


With the additional clause, the statement creates the database only if it does not already exist.  Otherwise, the statement does nothing and no error occurs.  This can be useful in applications that need to ensure that a given database is available, without disrupting any existing database with the same name.  





The CREATE DATABASE statement has two optional clauses, CHARACTER SET and COLLATE, that assign a default character set and collation for the database.  If given, they appear at the end of the statement following the database name.  The following statement specifies that the mydb database has a default character set of utf8 and collation of utf8_danish_ci:  


    CREATE DATABASE my_db CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_danish_ci; 


The default character set and collation for the database are used as the defaults for tables created in the database for which no explicit character set or collation of their own are specified.  The database defaults are stored in the db.opt file in the database directory.  Note:  CHARACTER SET is really a column setting.  By giving the table or the database a character set, it just affects the columns upon creation.