CREATE_DATABASE(7pg16)

📦 version 16.15, in opensuse-leap 16.0

✨ CREATE_DATABASE(7) ✨

okay so this is the PostgreSQL 16.15 documentation page for CREATE_DATABASE, bestie — literally the glow-up guide for making a brand-new database. 🎀

💖 NAME 💖

  • CREATE_DATABASE — create a new database

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

CREATE DATABASE name
    [ WITH ] [ OWNER [=] user_name ]
           [ TEMPLATE [=] template ]
           [ ENCODING [=] encoding ]
           [ STRATEGY [=] strategy ]
           [ LOCALE [=] locale ]
           [ LC_COLLATE [=] lc_collate ]
           [ LC_CTYPE [=] lc_ctype ]
           [ ICU_LOCALE [=] icu_locale ]
           [ ICU_RULES [=] icu_rules ]
           [ LOCALE_PROVIDER [=] locale_provider ]
           [ COLLATION_VERSION = collation_version ]
           [ TABLESPACE [=] tablespace_name ]
           [ ALLOW_CONNECTIONS [=] allowconn ]
           [ CONNECTION LIMIT [=] connlimit ]
           [ IS_TEMPLATE [=] istemplate ]
           [ OID [=] oid ]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

CREATE DATABASE creates a new PostgreSQL database. that's the whole main-character move. 👑

To create a database, you must be a superuser or have the special CREATEDB privilege. See CREATE ROLE (CREATE_ROLE(7)).

By default, the new database will be created by cloning the standard system database template1. a different template can be specified by writing TEMPLATE name. In particular, by writing TEMPLATE template0, you can create a pristine database — one where no user-defined objects exist and where the system objects have not been altered — containing only the standard objects predefined by your version of PostgreSQL. This is useful if you wish to avoid copying any installation-local objects that might have been added to template1. literally the clean-slate icon. ✨

💅 PARAMETERS 💅

  • name — the name of a database to create. that's the whole assignment, bestie.
  • user_name — the role name of the user who will own the new database, or DEFAULT to use the default (namely, the user executing the command). To create a database owned by another role, you must be able to SET ROLE to that role.
  • template — the name of the template from which to create the new database, or DEFAULT to use the default template (template1).
  • encoding — character set encoding to use in the new database. Specify a string constant (e.g., 'SQL_ASCII'), or an integer encoding number, or DEFAULT to use the default encoding (namely, the encoding of the template database). The character sets supported by the PostgreSQL server are described in Section 24.3.1. See below for additional restrictions.
  • strategy — strategy to be used in creating the new database. If the WAL_LOG strategy is used, the database will be copied block by block and each block will be separately written to the write-ahead log. This is the most efficient strategy in cases where the template database is small, and therefore it is the default. The older FILE_COPY strategy is also available. This strategy writes a small record to the write-ahead log for each tablespace used by the target database. Each such record represents copying an entire directory to a new location at the filesystem level. While this does reduce the write-ahead log volume substantially, especially if the template database is large, it also forces the system to perform a checkpoint both before and after the creation of the new database. In some situations, this may have a noticeable negative impact on overall system performance.
  • locale — sets the default collation order and character classification in the new database. Collation affects the sort order applied to strings, e.g., in queries with ORDER BY, as well as the order used in indexes on text columns. Character classification affects the categorization of characters, e.g., lower, upper, and digit. Also sets the associated aspects of the operating system environment, LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE. The default is the same setting as the template database. See Section 24.2.2.3.1 and Section 24.2.2.3.2 for details.

Can be overridden by setting lc_collate, lc_ctype, or icu_locale individually.

Tip: the other locale settings lc_messages, lc_monetary, lc_numeric, and lc_time are not fixed per database and are not set by this command. If you want to make them the default for a specific database, you can use ALTER DATABASE ... SET.
  • lc_collate — sets LC_COLLATE in the database server's operating system environment. The default is the setting of locale if specified, otherwise the same setting as the template database. See below for additional restrictions.

If locale_provider is libc, also sets the default collation order to use in the new database, overriding the setting locale.

  • lc_ctype — sets LC_CTYPE in the database server's operating system environment. The default is the setting of locale if specified, otherwise the same setting as the template database. See below for additional restrictions.

If locale_provider is libc, also sets the default character classification to use in the new database, overriding the setting locale.

  • icu_locale — specifies the ICU locale (see Section 24.2.2.3.2) for the database default collation order and character classification, overriding the setting locale. The locale provider must be ICU. The default is the setting of locale if specified; otherwise the same setting as the template database.
  • icu_rules — specifies additional collation rules to customize the behavior of the default collation of this database. This is supported for ICU only. See Section 24.2.3.4 for details.
  • locale_provider — specifies the provider to use for the default collation in this database. Possible values are icu (if the server was built with ICU support) or libc. By default, the provider is the same as that of the template. See Section 24.1.4 for details.
  • collation_version — specifies the collation version string to store with the database. Normally, this should be omitted, which will cause the version to be computed from the actual version of the database collation as provided by the operating system. This option is intended to be used by pg_upgrade for copying the version from an existing installation.

See also ALTER DATABASE (ALTER_DATABASE(7)) for how to handle database collation version mismatches.

  • tablespace_name — the name of the tablespace that will be associated with the new database, or DEFAULT to use the template database's tablespace. This tablespace will be the default tablespace used for objects created in this database. See CREATE TABLESPACE (CREATE_TABLESPACE(7)) for more information.
  • allowconn — if false then no one can connect to this database. The default is true, allowing connections (except as restricted by other mechanisms, such as GRANT/REVOKE CONNECT).
  • connlimit — how many concurrent connections can be made to this database. -1 (the default) means no limit.
  • istemplate — if true, then this database can be cloned by any user with CREATEDB privileges; if false (the default), then only superusers or the owner of the database can clone it.
  • oid — the object identifier to be used for the new database. If this parameter is not specified, PostgreSQL will choose a suitable OID automatically. This parameter is primarily intended for internal use by pg_upgrade, and only pg_upgrade can specify a value less than 16384.

Optional parameters can be written in any order, not only the order illustrated above. no cap, the order is flexible. 🫶

🔥 NOTES 🔥

CREATE DATABASE cannot be executed inside a transaction block. periodt.

Errors along the line of “could not initialize database directory” are most likely related to insufficient permissions on the data directory, a full disk, or other file system problems. 😭

Use DROP DATABASE to remove a database.

The program createdb(1) is a wrapper program around this command, provided for convenience.

Database-level configuration parameters (set via ALTER DATABASE) and database-level permissions (set via GRANT) are not copied from the template database.

Although it is possible to copy a database other than template1 by specifying its name as the template, this is not (yet) intended as a general-purpose “COPY DATABASE” facility. The principal limitation is that no other sessions can be connected to the template database while it is being copied. CREATE DATABASE will fail if any other connection exists when it starts; otherwise, new connections to the template database are locked out until CREATE DATABASE completes. See Section 23.3 for more information.

The character set encoding specified for the new database must be compatible with the chosen locale settings (LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE). If the locale is C (or equivalently POSIX), then all encodings are allowed, but for other locale settings there is only one encoding that will work properly. (On Windows, however, UTF-8 encoding can be used with any locale.) CREATE DATABASE will allow superusers to specify SQL_ASCII encoding regardless of the locale settings, but this choice is deprecated and may result in misbehavior of character-string functions if data that is not encoding-compatible with the locale is stored in the database. ⚠️

The encoding and locale settings must match those of the template database, except when template0 is used as template. This is because other databases might contain data that does not match the specified encoding, or might contain indexes whose sort ordering is affected by LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE. Copying such data would result in a database that is corrupt according to the new settings. template0, however, is known to not contain any data or indexes that would be affected.

There is currently no option to use a database locale with nondeterministic comparisons (see CREATE COLLATION for an explanation). If this is needed, then per-column collations would need to be used.

The CONNECTION LIMIT option is only enforced approximately; if two new sessions start at about the same time when just one connection “slot” remains for the database, it is possible that both will fail. Also, the limit is not enforced against superusers or background worker processes. 💀

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

okay bestie, here's where it gets fun — let's actually make some databases 💖

Wanna spin up a brand new database? Just say:

CREATE DATABASE lusiadas;

that's it. that's the whole vibe. slay ✨

Now say you want a database called sales, owned by the user salesapp, and it lives in a default tablespace called salesspace. iconic combo, here's how:

CREATE DATABASE sales OWNER salesapp TABLESPACE salesspace;

look at you go, customizing everything 💅

Feeling international? 🌍 Let's make a database called music with a different locale:

CREATE DATABASE music
    LOCALE 'sv_SE.utf8'
    TEMPLATE template0;

okay so real talk about this one 👀 — the TEMPLATE template0 clause is required here if the locale you specified is different from the one in template1. and ngl, if it's not different? then specifying the locale explicitly is just redundant. (redundant = extra, lowkey pointless, but not illegal 🫶)

Now the double customization moment — a database called music2 with a different locale and a different character set encoding:

CREATE DATABASE music2
    LOCALE 'sv_SE.iso885915'
    ENCODING LATIN9
    TEMPLATE template0;

here's the thing tho 😭 — the locale and encoding settings you specify must match, or an error will be reported. no cap, they have to agree with each other.

🚨 also important: locale names are specific to the operating system. so the commands above might not work the same way everywhere. your mileage may literally vary by machine, bestie 💀

🦋 COMPATIBILITY 🦋

sooo plot twist: there is no CREATE DATABASE statement in the SQL standard. like, at all. it's simply not there 🙈

databases are equivalent to catalogs, and the creation of catalogs is implementation-defined — which basically means each system gets to decide how that works for themselves. main character energy, honestly 👑

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

go check these out, iykwim:

  • ALTER DATABASE (ALTER_DATABASE(7)) — when you wanna change your database after the fact
  • DROP DATABASE (DROP_DATABASE(7)) — when you gotta let it go 😭 (say bye to your database)

and that's a wrap, bestie 🎀 you just read the whole CREATE DATABASE(7) page from PostgreSQL 16.15, dated 2026 — go forth and create databases responsibly, mwah 💖✨🌸

📦 where this page comes from