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'\" t
.\"     Title: CREATE DATABASE
.\"    Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2026
.\"    Manual: PostgreSQL 16.12 Documentation
.\"    Source: PostgreSQL 16.12
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "CREATE DATABASE" "7" "2026" "PostgreSQL 16.12" "PostgreSQL 16.12 Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
CREATE_DATABASE \- create a new database
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
CREATE DATABASE \fIname\fR
    [ WITH ] [ OWNER [=] \fIuser_name\fR ]
           [ TEMPLATE [=] \fItemplate\fR ]
           [ ENCODING [=] \fIencoding\fR ]
           [ STRATEGY [=] \fIstrategy\fR ]
           [ LOCALE [=] \fIlocale\fR ]
           [ LC_COLLATE [=] \fIlc_collate\fR ]
           [ LC_CTYPE [=] \fIlc_ctype\fR ]
           [ ICU_LOCALE [=] \fIicu_locale\fR ]
           [ ICU_RULES [=] \fIicu_rules\fR ]
           [ LOCALE_PROVIDER [=] \fIlocale_provider\fR ]
           [ COLLATION_VERSION = \fIcollation_version\fR ]
           [ TABLESPACE [=] \fItablespace_name\fR ]
           [ ALLOW_CONNECTIONS [=] \fIallowconn\fR ]
           [ CONNECTION LIMIT [=] \fIconnlimit\fR ]
           [ IS_TEMPLATE [=] \fIistemplate\fR ]
           [ OID [=] \fIoid\fR ]
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
\fBCREATE DATABASE\fR
creates a new
PostgreSQL
database\&.
.PP
To create a database, you must be a superuser or have the special
CREATEDB
privilege\&. See
CREATE ROLE (\fBCREATE_ROLE\fR(7))\&.
.PP
By default, the new database will be created by cloning the standard system database
template1\&. A different template can be specified by writing
TEMPLATE \fIname\fR\&. 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\&.
.SH "PARAMETERS"
.PP
\fIname\fR
.RS 4
The name of a database to create\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIuser_name\fR
.RS 4
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\&.
.RE
.PP
\fItemplate\fR
.RS 4
The name of the template from which to create the new database, or
DEFAULT
to use the default template (template1)\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIencoding\fR
.RS 4
Character set encoding to use in the new database\&. Specify a string constant (e\&.g\&.,
\*(AqSQL_ASCII\*(Aq), 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\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIstrategy\fR
.RS 4
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\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIlocale\fR
.RS 4
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\&.
.sp
Can be overridden by setting
\fIlc_collate\fR,
\fIlc_ctype\fR, or
\fIicu_locale\fR
individually\&.
.if n \{\
.sp
.\}
.RS 4
.it 1 an-trap
.nr an-no-space-flag 1
.nr an-break-flag 1
.br
.ps +1
\fBTip\fR
.ps -1
.br
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\&.
.sp .5v
.RE
.RE
.PP
\fIlc_collate\fR
.RS 4
Sets
LC_COLLATE
in the database server\*(Aqs operating system environment\&. The default is the setting of
\fIlocale\fR
if specified, otherwise the same setting as the template database\&. See below for additional restrictions\&.
.sp
If
\fIlocale_provider\fR
is
libc, also sets the default collation order to use in the new database, overriding the setting
\fIlocale\fR\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIlc_ctype\fR
.RS 4
Sets
LC_CTYPE
in the database server\*(Aqs operating system environment\&. The default is the setting of
\fIlocale\fR
if specified, otherwise the same setting as the template database\&. See below for additional restrictions\&.
.sp
If
\fIlocale_provider\fR
is
libc, also sets the default character classification to use in the new database, overriding the setting
\fIlocale\fR\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIicu_locale\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the ICU locale (see
Section\ \&24.2.2.3.2) for the database default collation order and character classification, overriding the setting
\fIlocale\fR\&. The
locale provider
must be ICU\&. The default is the setting of
\fIlocale\fR
if specified; otherwise the same setting as the template database\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIicu_rules\fR
.RS 4
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\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIlocale_provider\fR
.RS 4
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
\fItemplate\fR\&. See
Section\ \&24.1.4
for details\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIcollation_version\fR
.RS 4
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
\fBpg_upgrade\fR
for copying the version from an existing installation\&.
.sp
See also
ALTER DATABASE (\fBALTER_DATABASE\fR(7))
for how to handle database collation version mismatches\&.
.RE
.PP
\fItablespace_name\fR
.RS 4
The name of the tablespace that will be associated with the new database, or
DEFAULT
to use the template database\*(Aqs tablespace\&. This tablespace will be the default tablespace used for objects created in this database\&. See
CREATE TABLESPACE (\fBCREATE_TABLESPACE\fR(7))
for more information\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIallowconn\fR
.RS 4
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)\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIconnlimit\fR
.RS 4
How many concurrent connections can be made to this database\&. \-1 (the default) means no limit\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIistemplate\fR
.RS 4
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\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIoid\fR
.RS 4
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\&.
.RE
.PP
Optional parameters can be written in any order, not only the order illustrated above\&.
.SH "NOTES"
.PP
\fBCREATE DATABASE\fR
cannot be executed inside a transaction block\&.
.PP
Errors along the line of
\(lqcould not initialize database directory\(rq
are most likely related to insufficient permissions on the data directory, a full disk, or other file system problems\&.
.PP
Use
\fBDROP DATABASE\fR
to remove a database\&.
.PP
The program
\fBcreatedb\fR(1)
is a wrapper program around this command, provided for convenience\&.
.PP
Database\-level configuration parameters (set via
\fBALTER DATABASE\fR) and database\-level permissions (set via
\fBGRANT\fR) are not copied from the template database\&.
.PP
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
\(lq\fBCOPY DATABASE\fR\(rq
facility\&. The principal limitation is that no other sessions can be connected to the template database while it is being copied\&.
\fBCREATE DATABASE\fR
will fail if any other connection exists when it starts; otherwise, new connections to the template database are locked out until
\fBCREATE DATABASE\fR
completes\&. See
Section\ \&23.3
for more information\&.
.PP
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\&.)
\fBCREATE DATABASE\fR
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\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
There is currently no option to use a database locale with nondeterministic comparisons (see
\fBCREATE COLLATION\fR
for an explanation)\&. If this is needed, then per\-column collations would need to be used\&.
.PP
The
CONNECTION LIMIT
option is only enforced approximately; if two new sessions start at about the same time when just one connection
\(lqslot\(rq
remains for the database, it is possible that both will fail\&. Also, the limit is not enforced against superusers or background worker processes\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
To create a new database:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE DATABASE lusiadas;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
To create a database
sales
owned by user
salesapp
with a default tablespace of
salesspace:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE DATABASE sales OWNER salesapp TABLESPACE salesspace;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
To create a database
music
with a different locale:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE DATABASE music
    LOCALE \*(Aqsv_SE\&.utf8\*(Aq
    TEMPLATE template0;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
In this example, the
TEMPLATE template0
clause is required if the specified locale is different from the one in
template1\&. (If it is not, then specifying the locale explicitly is redundant\&.)
.PP
To create a database
music2
with a different locale and a different character set encoding:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE DATABASE music2
    LOCALE \*(Aqsv_SE\&.iso885915\*(Aq
    ENCODING LATIN9
    TEMPLATE template0;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
The specified locale and encoding settings must match, or an error will be reported\&.
.PP
Note that locale names are specific to the operating system, so that the above commands might not work in the same way everywhere\&.
.SH "COMPATIBILITY"
.PP
There is no
\fBCREATE DATABASE\fR
statement in the SQL standard\&. Databases are equivalent to catalogs, whose creation is implementation\-defined\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
ALTER DATABASE (\fBALTER_DATABASE\fR(7)), DROP DATABASE (\fBDROP_DATABASE\fR(7))
F1l3 Manager
