MySQL Manual
3 Tutorial Introduction
- 3.3 Creating and Using a Database
- 3.3.1 Creating and Selecting a Database
- 3.3.2 Creating a Table
- 3.3.3 Loading Data into a Table
- 3.3.4 Retrieving Information from a Table
3.3.1 Creating and Selecting a Database
If the administrator creates your database for you when setting up your permissions, you can begin using it. Otherwise, you need to create it yourself:
mysql> CREATE DATABASE menagerie;
Under Unix, database names are case-sensitive (unlike SQL keywords), so you
must always refer to your database as menagerie, not as
Menagerie, MENAGERIE, or some other variant. This is also true
for table names. (Under Windows, this restriction does not apply, although
you must refer to databases and tables using the same lettercase throughout a
given query.)
Creating a database does not select it for use; you must do that explicitly.
To make menagerie the current database, use this command:
mysql> USE menagerie Database changed
Your database needs to be created only once, but you must select it for use
each time you begin a mysql session. You can do this by issuing a
USE statement as shown above. Alternatively, you can select the
database on the command-line when you invoke mysql. Just specify its
name after any connection parameters that you might need to provide. For
example:
shell> mysql -h host -u user -p menagerie Enter password: ********
Note that menagerie is not your password on the command just shown.
If you want to supply your password on the command-line after the -p
option, you must do so with no intervening space (for example, as
-pmypassword, not as -p mypassword). However, putting your
password on the command-line is not recommended, because doing so exposes it
to snooping by other users logged in on your machine.
