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CREATE TABLE

Define a new table structure. This fundamental command specifies columns, data types, indexes, and storage engine options for storing data.

Syntax

Description

Use the CREATE TABLE statement to create a table with the given name.

In its most basic form, the CREATE TABLE statement provides a table name followed by a list of columns, indexes, and constraints. By default, the table is created in the default database. Specify a database with db_name.tbl_name. If you quote the table name, you must quote the database name and table name separately as `db_name`.`tbl_name`. This is particularly useful for , because it allows to create a table into a database, which contains data from other databases. See .

If a table with the same name exists, error 1050 results. Use to suppress this error and issue a note instead. Use to see notes.

The CREATE TABLE statement automatically commits the current transaction, except when using the keyword.

For valid identifiers to use as table names, see .

If the default_storage_engine is set to ColumnStore , it needs setting on all UMs. Otherwise when the tables using the default engine are replicated across UMs, they will use the wrong engine. You should therefore not use this option as a session variable with ColumnStore.

can be between 0-6. If no precision is specified it is assumed to be 0, for backward compatibility reasons.

Privileges

Executing the CREATE TABLE statement requires the privilege for the table or the database.

CREATE OR REPLACE

If the OR REPLACE clause is used and the table already exists, then instead of returning an error, the server will drop the existing table and replace it with the newly defined table.

This syntax was originally added to make more robust if it has to rollback and repeat statements such as CREATE ... SELECT on replicas.

is basically the same as:

with the following exceptions:

  • If table_name was locked with it will continue to be locked after the statement.

  • Temporary tables are only dropped if the TEMPORARY keyword was used. (With , temporary tables are preferred to be dropped before normal tables).

Things to be Aware of With CREATE OR REPLACE

  • The table is dropped first (if it existed), after that the CREATE is done. Because of this, if the CREATE fails, then the table will not exist anymore after the statement. If the table was used with LOCK TABLES it will be unlocked.

  • One can't use OR REPLACE together with IF EXISTS.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS

If the IF NOT EXISTS clause is used, then the table will only be created if a table with the same name does not already exist. If the table already exists, then a warning will be triggered by default.

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE

Use the TEMPORARY keyword to create a temporary table that is only available to the current session. Temporary tables are dropped when the session ends. Temporary table names are specific to the session. They will not conflict with other temporary tables from other sessions even if they share the same name. They will shadow names of non-temporary tables or views, if they are identical. A temporary table can have the same name as a non-temporary table which is located in the same database. In that case, their name will reference the temporary table when used in SQL statements. You must have the privilege on the database to create temporary tables. If no storage engine is specified, the setting will determine the engine.

temporary tables cannot be created by setting the system variable, or using CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE LIKE. If you try, an error is returned. Explicitly creating a temporary table with ENGINE=ROCKSDB has never been permitted.

temporary tables cannot be created by setting the system variable, or using CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE LIKE. They can be specified, but fail silently, and a MyISAM table is created instead. Explicitly creating a temporary table with ENGINE=ROCKSDB has never been permitted.

Replicating temporary tables

By default, temporary tables are only created on the replica if the primary is using the .

The new deterministic rules for logging of temporary tables are:

  • The STATEMENT binlog format is used. If it is binlogged, 1 is stored in TABLE_SHARE->table_creation_was_logged. The user can change this behavior by setting to MIXED, STATEMENT in which case the create is logged in statement format also in MIXED mode (as before).

CREATE TABLE ... LIKE

Use the LIKE clause instead of a full table definition to create an empty table with the same definition as another table, including columns, indexes, and table options. Foreign key definitions, as well as any DATA DIRECTORY or INDEX DIRECTORY table options specified on the original table, will not be created.

LIKE does not preserve the TEMPORARY status of the original table. To make the new table TEMPORARY as well, use CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE ... LIKE.

LIKE does not work with , only base tables. Attempting to use it on a view will result in an error:

The same version of the table storage format as found in the original table is used for the new table.

CREATE TABLE ... LIKE performs the same checks as CREATE TABLE. So a statement may fail if a change in the renders it invalid. For example:

CREATE TABLE ... SELECT

You can create a table containing data from other tables using the CREATE ... SELECT statement. Columns will be created in the table for each field returned by the SELECT query.

You can also define some columns normally and add other columns from a SELECT. You can also create columns in the normal way and assign them some values using the query, this is done to force a certain type or other field characteristics. The columns that are not named in the query will be placed before the others. For example:

Remember that the query just returns data. If you want to use the same indexes, or the same columns attributes ([NOT] NULL, DEFAULT, AUTO_INCREMENT, CHECK constraints) in the new table, you need to specify them manually. Types and sizes are not automatically preserved if no data returned by the SELECT requires the full size, and VARCHAR could be converted into CHAR. The function can be used to force the new table to use certain types.

Aliases (AS) are taken into account, and they should always be used when you SELECT an expression (function, arithmetical operation, etc).

If an error occurs during the query, the table will not be created at all.

If the new table has a primary key or UNIQUE indexes, you can use the or REPLACE keywords to handle duplicate key errors during the query. IGNORE means that the newer values must not be inserted an identical value exists in the index. REPLACE means that older values must be overwritten.

If the columns in the new table are more than the rows returned by the query, the columns populated by the query will be placed after other columns. Note that if the strict SQL_MODE is on, and the columns that are not names in the query do not have a DEFAULT value, an error will raise and no rows will be copied.

are not used during the execution of a CREATE ... SELECT.

If the table already exists, an error similar to the following will be returned:

If the IF NOT EXISTS clause is used and the table exists, a note will be produced instead of an error.

To insert rows from a query into an existing table, can be used.

Column Definitions

Note:

MariaDB accepts the shortcut format with a REFERENCES clause only in ALTER TABLE and CREATE TABLE statements, but that syntax does nothing. For example:

MariaDB will attempt to apply the constraint. See .

MariaDB accepts the shortcut format with a REFERENCES clause only in ALTER TABLE and CREATE TABLE statements, but that syntax does nothing. For example:

Each definition either creates a column in the table or specifies and index or constraint on one or more columns. See below for details on creating indexes.

Create a column by specifying a column name and a data type, optionally followed by column options. See for a full list of data types allowed in MariaDB.

NULL and NOT NULL

Use the NULL or NOT NULL options to specify that values in the column may or may not be NULL, respectively. By default, values may be NULL. See also .

DEFAULT Column Option

Specify a default value using the DEFAULT clause. If you don't specify DEFAULT then the following rules apply:

  • If the column is not defined with NOT NULL, AUTO_INCREMENT or TIMESTAMP, an explicit DEFAULT NULL will be added. Note that in MySQL, you may get an explicit DEFAULT for primary key parts, if not specified with NOT NULL.

The default value will be used if you a row without specifying a value for that column, or if you specify for that column.

may also be used as the default value for a

You can use most functions in DEFAULT. Expressions should have parentheses around them. If you use a non deterministic function in DEFAULT then all inserts to the table will be in . You can even refer to earlier columns in the DEFAULT expression (excluding AUTO_INCREMENT columns):

The DEFAULT clause cannot contain any or , and a column used in the clause must already have been defined earlier in the statement.

It is possible to assign or columns a DEFAULT value.

You can also use DEFAULT ().

AUTO_INCREMENT Column Option

Use to create a column whose value can be set automatically from a simple counter. You can only use AUTO_INCREMENT on a column with an integer type. The column must be a key, and there can only be one AUTO_INCREMENT column in a table. If you insert a row without specifying a value for that column (or if you specify 0, NULL, or as the value), the actual value will be taken from the counter, with each insertion incrementing the counter by one. You can still insert a value explicitly. If you insert a value that is greater than the current counter value, the counter is set based on the new value. An AUTO_INCREMENT column is implicitly NOT NULL. Use to get the value most recently used by an statement.

ZEROFILL Column Option

If the ZEROFILL column option is specified for a column using a data type, then the column will be set to UNSIGNED and the spaces used by default to pad the field are replaced with zeros. ZEROFILL is ignored in expressions or as part of a , , or . ZEROFILL is a non-standard MariaDB and MySQL extension.

PRIMARY KEY Column Option

Use PRIMARY KEY to make a column a primary key. A primary key is a special type of a unique key. There can be at most one primary key per table, and it is implicitly NOT NULL.

Specifying a column as a unique key creates a unique index on that column. See the section below for more information.

UNIQUE KEY Column Option

Use UNIQUE KEY (or just UNIQUE) to specify that all values in the column must be distinct from each other. Unless the column is NOT NULL, there may be multiple rows with NULL in the column.

When any inserts or updates occur in the table, reading the binlog shows the hidden column (@3). it causes confusion for the user; we can document these behaviours.

See the section below for more information.

COMMENT Column Option

You can provide a comment for each column using the COMMENT clause. The maximum length is 1024 characters. Use the statement to see column comments.

REF_SYSTEM_ID

REF_SYSTEM_ID can be used to specify Spatial Reference System IDs for spatial data type columns. For example:

Generated Columns

A generated column is a column in a table that cannot explicitly be set to a specific value in a . Instead, its value is automatically generated based on an expression. This expression might generate the value based on the values of other columns in the table, or it might generate the value by calling or .

There are two types of generated columns:

  • PERSISTENT or STORED: This type's value is actually stored in the table.

  • VIRTUAL: This type's value is not stored at all. Instead, the value is generated dynamically when the table is queried. This type is the default.

Generated columns are also sometimes called computed columns or virtual columns.

For a complete description about generated columns and their limitations, see .

COMPRESSED

Certain columns may be compressed. See .

INVISIBLE

Columns may be made invisible, and hidden in certain contexts. See .

WITH SYSTEM VERSIONING Column Option

Columns may be explicitly marked as included from system versioning. See for details.

WITHOUT SYSTEM VERSIONING Column Option

Columns may be explicitly marked as excluded from system versioning. See for details.

Index Definitions

INDEX and KEY are synonyms.

Index names are optional, if not specified an automatic name will be assigned. Index name are needed to drop indexes and appear in error messages when a constraint is violated.

For limits on InnoDB indexes, see .

Index Categories

Plain Indexes

Plain indexes are regular indexes that are not unique, and are not acting as a primary key or a foreign key. They are also not the "specialized" FULLTEXT or SPATIAL indexes.

See for more information.

PRIMARY KEY

For PRIMARY KEY indexes, you can specify a name for the index, but it is ignored, and the name of the index is always PRIMARY. A warning is explicitly issued if a name is specified. Before then, the name was silently ignored.

See for more information.

UNIQUE

The UNIQUE keyword means that the index will not accept duplicated values, except for NULLs. An error will raise if you try to insert duplicate values in a UNIQUE index.

For UNIQUE indexes, you can specify a name for the constraint, using the CONSTRAINT keyword. That name will be used in error messages.

Unique, if index type is not specified, is normally a BTREE index that can also be used by the optimizer to find rows. If the key is longer than the max key length for the used storage engine, a HASH key will be created. This enables MariaDB to enforce uniqueness for any type or number of columns.

-

See for more information.

FOREIGN KEY

For FOREIGN KEY indexes, a reference definition must be provided.

For FOREIGN KEY indexes, you can specify a name for the constraint, using the CONSTRAINT keyword. That name will be used in error messages.

First, you have to specify the name of the target (parent) table and a column or a column list which must be indexed and whose values must match to the foreign key's values. The MATCH clause is accepted to improve the compatibility with other DBMS's, but has no meaning in MariaDB. The ON DELETE and ON UPDATE clauses specify what must be done when a DELETE (or a REPLACE) statements attempts to delete a referenced row from the parent table, and when an UPDATE statement attempts to modify the referenced foreign key columns in a parent table row, respectively. The following options are allowed:

  • RESTRICT: The delete/update operation is not performed. The statement terminates with a 1451 error (SQLSTATE '2300').

  • NO ACTION: Synonym for RESTRICT.

  • CASCADE: The delete/update operation is performed in both tables.

If either clause is omitted, the default behavior for the omitted clause is RESTRICT.

See for more information.

FULLTEXT

Use the FULLTEXT keyword to create full-text indexes.

See for more information.

SPATIAL

Use the SPATIAL keyword to create geometric indexes.

See for more information.

Index Options

KEY_BLOCK_SIZE Index Option

The KEY_BLOCK_SIZE index option is similar to the table option.

With the storage engine, if you specify a non-zero value for the KEY_BLOCK_SIZE table option for the whole table, then the table will implicitly be created with the table option set to COMPRESSED. However, this does not happen if you just set the KEY_BLOCK_SIZE index option for one or more indexes in the table. The storage engine ignores the KEY_BLOCK_SIZE index option. However, the statement may still report it for the index.

For information about the KEY_BLOCK_SIZE index option, see the table option below.

Index Types

Each storage engine supports some or all index types. See for details on permitted index types for each storage engine.

Different index types are optimized for different kind of operations:

  • BTREE is the default type, and normally is the best choice. It is supported by all storage engines. It can be used to compare a column's value with a value using the =, >, >=, <, <=, BETWEEN, and LIKE operators. BTREE can also be used to find NULL values. Searches against an index prefix are possible.

  • HASH is only supported by the MEMORY storage engine. HASH indexes can only be used for =, <=, and >= comparisons. It can not be used for the

Index columns names are listed between parenthesis. After each column, a prefix length can be specified. If no length is specified, the whole column will be indexed. ASC and DESC can be specified. Individual columns in the index can be explicitly sorted in ascending or descending order. This can be useful for optimizing certain ORDER BY cases (, , , ). Not only ascending, but also descending, indexes can be used to optimize and ().

Index columns names are listed between parenthesis. After each column, a prefix length can be specified. If no length is specified, the whole column will be indexed. ASC and DESC can be specified. Prior to , this was only for compatibility with other DBMSs, but had no meaning in MariaDB. From , individual columns in the index can now be explicitly sorted in ascending or descending order. This can be useful for optimizing certain ORDER BY cases (, , , ). From , not only ascending, but also descending, indexes can now be used to optimize

The maximum number of parts in an index is 32.

WITH PARSER Index Option

The WITH PARSER index option only applies to indexes and contains the fulltext parser name. The fulltext parser must be an installed plugin.

VISIBLE Index Option

Indexes can be declared visible. This is the default and it shows up in .

Indexes cannot be declared visible.

COMMENT Index Option

A comment of up to 1024 characters is permitted with the COMMENT index option.

The COMMENT index option allows you to specify a comment with user-readable text describing what the index is for. This information is not used by the server itself.

CLUSTERING Index Option

The CLUSTERING index option is only valid for tables using the storage engine.

IGNORED / NOT IGNORED

Indexes can be specified to be ignored by the optimizer. See .

Indexes can be specified to be ignored by the optimizer. See .

Periods

MariaDB supports , or .

Constraint Expressions

MariaDB introduced two ways to define a constraint:

  • CHECK(expression) given as part of a column definition.

  • CONSTRAINT [constraint_name] CHECK (expression)

Before a row is inserted or updated, all constraints are evaluated in the order they are defined. If any constraints fails, then the row will not be updated. One can use most deterministic functions in a constraint, including .

If you use the second format and you don't give a name to the constraint, then the constraint will get a auto generated name. This is done so that you can later delete the constraint with .

One can disable all constraint expression checks by setting the variable check_constraint_checks to OFF. This is useful for example when loading a table that violates some constraints that you want to later find and fix in SQL.

See for more information.

Table Options

For each individual table you create (or alter), you can set some table options. The general syntax for setting options is:

The equal sign is optional.

Some options are supported by the server and can be used for all tables, no matter what storage engine they use; other options can be specified for all storage engines, but have a meaning only for some engines. Also, engines can .

If the IGNORE_BAD_TABLE_OPTIONS is enabled, wrong table options generate a warning; otherwise, they generate an error.

[STORAGE] ENGINE

[STORAGE] ENGINE specifies a for the table. If this option is not used, the default storage engine is used instead. That is, the session option value if it is set, or the value specified for the --default-storage-engine , or the default storage engine, . If the specified storage engine is not installed and active, the default value will be used, unless the NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION is set (default). This is only true for CREATE TABLE, not for ALTER TABLE. For a list of storage engines that are present in your server, issue a .

AUTO_INCREMENT

AUTO_INCREMENT specifies the initial value for the primary key. This works for MyISAM, Aria, InnoDB, MEMORY, and ARCHIVE tables. You can change this option with ALTER TABLE, but in that case the new value must be higher than the highest value which is present in the AUTO_INCREMENT column. If the storage engine does not support this option, you can insert (and then delete) a row having the wanted value - 1 in the AUTO_INCREMENT column.

AVG_ROW_LENGTH

AVG_ROW_LENGTH is the average rows size. It only applies to tables using and storage engines that have the table option set to FIXED format.

MyISAM uses MAX_ROWS and AVG_ROW_LENGTH to decide the maximum size of a table (default: 256TB, or the maximum file size allowed by the system).

[DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET/CHARSET

[DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET (or [DEFAULT] CHARSET) is used to set a default character set for the table. This is the character set used for all columns where an explicit character set is not specified. If this option is omitted or DEFAULT is specified, the database's default character set will be used (except for the , which is utf8mb4 by default). See for details on setting the .

CHECKSUM/TABLE_CHECKSUM

CHECKSUM (or TABLE_CHECKSUM) can be set to 1 to maintain a live checksum for all table's rows. This makes write operations slower, but will be very fast. This option is only supported for and .

[DEFAULT] COLLATE

[DEFAULT] COLLATE is used to set a default collation for the table. This is the collation used for all columns where an explicit character set is not specified. If this option is omitted or DEFAULT is specified, the database's default option will be used (except for the , which uses utf8mb4_bin by default). See for details on setting the

COMMENT

COMMENT is a comment for the table. The maximum length is 2048 characters. Also used to define table parameters when creating a table.

CONNECTION

CONNECTION is used to specify a server name or a connection string for a , , .

DATA DIRECTORY/INDEX DIRECTORY

DATA DIRECTORY and INDEX DIRECTORY are supported for MyISAM and Aria, and DATA DIRECTORY is also supported by InnoDB if the server system variable is enabled, but only in CREATE TABLE, not in . So, carefully choose a path for InnoDB tables at creation time, because it cannot be changed without dropping and re-creating the table. These options specify the paths for data files and index files, respectively. If these options are omitted, the database's directory will be used to store data files and index files. Note that these table options do not work for tables (use the partition options instead), or if the server has been invoked with the . To avoid the overwriting of old files with the same name that could be present in the directories, you can use (an error will be issued if files already exist). These options are ignored if the NO_DIR_IN_CREATE is enabled (useful for replicas). Also note that symbolic links cannot be used for InnoDB tables.

DATA DIRECTORY works by creating symlinks from where the table would normally have been (inside the ) to where the option specifies. For security reasons, to avoid bypassing the privilege system, the server does not permit symlinks inside the datadir. Therefore, DATA DIRECTORY cannot be used to specify a location inside the datadir. An attempt to do so will result in an error 1210 (HY000) Incorrect arguments to DATA DIRECTORY.

DELAY_KEY_WRITE

DELAY_KEY_WRITE is supported by MyISAM and Aria, and can be set to 1 to speed up write operations. In that case, when data are modified, the indexes are not updated until the table is closed. Writing the changes to the index file altogether can be much faster. However, note that this option is applied only if the delay_key_write server variable is set to 'ON'. If it is 'OFF' the delayed index writes are always disabled, and if it is 'ALL' the delayed index writes are always used, disregarding the value of DELAY_KEY_WRITE.

ENCRYPTED

The ENCRYPTED table option can be used to manually set the encryption status of an table. See for more information.

Aria does not support the ENCRYPTED table option. See .

See for more information.

ENCRYPTION_KEY_ID

The ENCRYPTION_KEY_ID table option can be used to manually set the encryption key of an table. See for more information.

Aria does not support the ENCRYPTION_KEY_ID table option. See .

See for more information.

IETF_QUOTES

For the storage engine, the IETF_QUOTES option, when set to YES, enables IETF-compatible parsing of embedded quote and comma characters. Enabling this option for a table improves compatibility with other tools that use CSV, but is not compatible with MySQL CSV tables, or MariaDB CSV tables created without this option. Disabled by default.

INSERT_METHOD

INSERT_METHOD is only used with tables. This option determines in which underlying table the new rows should be inserted. If you set it to 'NO' (which is the default) no new rows can be added to the table (but you will still be able to perform INSERTs directly against the underlying tables). FIRST means that the rows are inserted into the first table, and LAST means that thet are inserted into the last table.

KEY_BLOCK_SIZE

KEY_BLOCK_SIZE is used to determine the size of key blocks, in bytes or kilobytes. However, this value is just a hint, and the storage engine could modify or ignore it. If KEY_BLOCK_SIZE is set to 0, the storage engine's default value will be used.

With the storage engine, if you specify a non-zero value for the KEY_BLOCK_SIZE table option for the whole table, then the table will implicitly be created with the table option set to COMPRESSED.

MIN_ROWS/MAX_ROWS

MIN_ROWS and MAX_ROWS let the storage engine know how many rows you are planning to store as a minimum and as a maximum. These values will not be used as real limits, but they help the storage engine to optimize the table. MIN_ROWS is only used by MEMORY storage engine to decide the minimum memory that is always allocated. MAX_ROWS is used to decide the minimum size for indexes.

PACK_KEYS

PACK_KEYS can be used to determine whether the indexes will be compressed. Set it to 1 to compress all keys. With a value of 0, compression will not be used. With the DEFAULT value, only long strings will be compressed. Uncompressed keys are faster.

PAGE_CHECKSUM

PAGE_CHECKSUM is only applicable to tables, and determines whether indexes and data should use page checksums for extra safety.

PAGE_COMPRESSED

PAGE_COMPRESSED is used to enable for tables.

PAGE_COMPRESSION_LEVEL

PAGE_COMPRESSION_LEVEL is used to set the compression level for for tables. The table must also have the table option set to 1.

Valid values for PAGE_COMPRESSION_LEVEL are 1 (the best speed) through 9 (the best compression), .

PASSWORD

PASSWORD is unused.

RAID_TYPE

RAID_TYPE is an obsolete option, as the raid support has been disabled since MySQL 5.0.

ROW_FORMAT

The ROW_FORMAT table option specifies the row format for the data file. Possible values are engine-dependent.

Supported MyISAM Row Formats

For , the supported row formats are:

  • FIXED

  • DYNAMIC

  • COMPRESSED

The COMPRESSED row format can only be set by the command line tool.

See for more information.

Supported Aria Row Formats

For , the supported row formats are:

  • PAGE

  • FIXED

  • DYNAMIC.

See for more information.

Supported InnoDB Row Formats

For , the supported row formats are:

  • COMPACT

  • REDUNDANT

  • COMPRESSED

  • DYNAMIC

If the ROW_FORMAT table option is set to FIXED for an InnoDB table, then the server will either return an error or a warning depending on the value of the system variable. If the system variable is set to OFF, then a warning is issued, and MariaDB will create the table using the default row format for the specific MariaDB server version. If the system variable is set to ON, then an error will be raised.

See for more information.

Other Storage Engines and ROW_FORMAT

Other storage engines do not support the ROW_FORMAT table option.

SEQUENCE

If the table is a , then it will have the SEQUENCE set to 1.

STATS_AUTO_RECALC

STATS_AUTO_RECALC indicates whether to automatically recalculate persistent statistics (see STATS_PERSISTENT, below) for an InnoDB table. If set to 1, statistics will be recalculated when more than 10% of the data has changed. When set to 0, stats will be recalculated only when an is run. If set to DEFAULT, or left out, the value set by the system variable applies. See .

STATS_PERSISTENT

STATS_PERSISTENT indicates whether the InnoDB statistics created by will remain on disk or not. It can be set to 1 (on disk), 0 (not on disk, the pre-MariaDB 10 behavior), or DEFAULT (the same as leaving out the option), in which case the value set by the system variable will apply. Persistent statistics stored on disk allow the statistics to survive server restarts, and provide better query plan stability. See .

STATS_SAMPLE_PAGES

STATS_SAMPLE_PAGES indicates how many pages are used to sample index statistics. If 0 or DEFAULT, the default value, the value is used. See .

TRANSACTIONAL

TRANSACTIONAL is only applicable for Aria tables. In future Aria tables created with this option will be fully transactional, but currently this provides a form of crash protection. See for more details.

UNION

UNION must be specified when you create a MERGE table. This option contains a comma-separated list of MyISAM tables which are accessed by the new table. The list is enclosed between parenthesis. Example: UNION = (t1,t2)

WITH SYSTEM VERSIONING

WITH SYSTEM VERSIONING is used for creating .

Partitions

If the PARTITION BY clause is used, the table will be . A partition method must be explicitly indicated for partitions and subpartitions. Partition methods are:

  • [LINEAR] creates a hash key which will be used to read and write rows. The partition function can be any valid SQL expression which returns an INTEGER number. Thus, it is possible to use the HASH method on an integer column, or on functions which accept integer columns as an argument. However, VALUES LESS THAN and VALUES IN clauses can not be used with HASH. An example:

[LINEAR] can be used for subpartitions, too.

  • [LINEAR] is similar to HASH, but the index has an even distribution of data. Also, the expression can only be a column or a list of columns. VALUES LESS THAN and VALUES IN clauses can not be used with KEY.

  • partitions the rows using on a range of values, using the VALUES LESS THAN operator. VALUES IN is not allowed with RANGE

Only and can be used for subpartitions, and they can be [LINEAR].

It is possible to define up to 8092 partitions and subpartitions.

The number of defined partitions can be optionally specified as PARTITION count. This can be done to avoid specifying all partitions individually. But you can also declare each individual partition and, additionally, specify a PARTITIONS count clause; in the case, the number of PARTITIONs must equal count.

Also see .

The PARTITION keyword is optional as part of the partition definition. Instead of this:

The following can be used:

The PARTITION keyword is not optional as part of the partition definition. You must use this syntax:

Sequences

CREATE TABLE can also be used to create a . See and .

Atomic DDL

MariaDB supports . CREATE TABLE is atomic, except for CREATE OR REPLACE, which are only crash-safe.

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Examples

This example shows a couple of things:

  • Usage of IF NOT EXISTS; If the table already existed, it will not be created. There will not be any error for the client, just a warning.

  • How to create a PRIMARY KEY that is .

  • How to specify a table-specific and another for a column.

The following clauses will work:

See Also

This page is licensed: GPLv2, originally from

CREATE [OR REPLACE] [TEMPORARY] TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] tbl_name
    (create_definition,...) [table_options    ]... [partition_options]
CREATE [OR REPLACE] [TEMPORARY] TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] tbl_name
    [(create_definition,...)] [table_options   ]... [partition_options]
    select_statement
CREATE [OR REPLACE] [TEMPORARY] TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] tbl_name
   { LIKE old_table_name | (LIKE old_table_name) }

select_statement:
    [IGNORE | REPLACE] [AS] SELECT ...   (Some legal select statement)
Replicas will by default use CREATE OR REPLACE when replicating CREATE statements that don''t use IF EXISTS. This can be changed by setting the variable slave-ddl-exec-mode to STRICT.

Changes to temporary tables are only binlogged if and only if the CREATE was logged. The logging happens under STATEMENT or MIXED. If binlog_format=ROW, temporary table changes are not binlogged. A temporary table that is changed under ROW is marked as 'not up to date in binlog' and no future row changes are logged. Any usage of this temporary table will force row logging of other tables in any future statements using the temporary table to be row logged.

  • DROP TEMPORARY is binlogged only if the CREATE was binlogged.

  • In some contexts, temporary tables on the primary and replica can become inconsistent. One example is if a temporary table is updated with the value of a non deterministic function like UUID(), in which the change is never sent to the replica.

    In some other contexts, while using MIXED mode, all changes will be logged in ROW mode while the user has any active temporary tables, even if the temporary tables are not used in the query. This depends on in which format some previous independent commands were logged.

    There are many other pitfalls with logging temporary table to the replica.

    SET NULL: The update or delete goes ahead in the parent table, and the corresponding foreign key fields in the child table are set to NULL. (They must not be defined as NOT NULL for this to succeed).

  • SET DEFAULT: This option is currently implemented only for the PBXT storage engine, which is disabled by default and no longer maintained. It sets the child table's foreign key fields to their DEFAULT values when the referenced parent table key entries are updated or deleted.

  • ORDER BY
    clause. Searches against an index prefix are not possible.
  • RTREE is the default for SPATIAL indexes, but if the storage engine does not support it BTREE can be used.

  • and
    (
    ).
    .
    . The partition function can be any valid SQL expression which returns a single value.
  • LIST assigns partitions based on a table's column with a restricted set of possible values. It is similar to RANGE, but VALUES IN must be used for at least 1 columns, and VALUES LESS THAN is disallowed.

  • SYSTEM_TIME partitioning is used for System-versioned tables to store historical data separately from current data.

  • How to create an index (name) that is only partly indexed (to save space).
    SHOW CREATE TABLE
  • CREATE TABLE with Vectors

  • Storage engines can add their own attributes for columns, indexes and tables

  • Variable slave-ddl-exec-mode

  • InnoDB Limitations

  • CREATE TABLE ... SELECT
    Identifier Qualifiers
    IF NOT EXISTS
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    MariaDB 11.4.0
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    fill_help_tables.sql
    MAX()
    MDEV-27576
    CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE table_name (a INT);
    DROP TABLE IF EXISTS TABLE_NAME;
    CREATE TABLE TABLE_NAME (a INT);
    CREATE VIEW v (mycol) AS SELECT 'abc';
    
    CREATE TABLE v2 LIKE v;
    ERROR 1347 (HY000): 'test.v' is not of type 'BASE TABLE'
    CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE x (d DATE DEFAULT '0000-00-00');
    
    SET SQL_MODE='NO_ZERO_DATE';
    
    CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE y LIKE x;
    ERROR 1067 (42000): Invalid default value for 'd'
    CREATE TABLE test (a INT NOT NULL, b CHAR(10)) ENGINE=MyISAM
        SELECT 5 AS b, c, d FROM another_table;
    ERROR 1050 (42S01): Table 't' already exists
    create_definition:
      { col_name column_definition | index_definition | period_definition | CHECK (expr) }
    
    column_definition:
      data_type
        [NOT NULL | NULL] [DEFAULT default_value | (expression)]
        [ON UPDATE [NOW | CURRENT_TIMESTAMP] [(precision)]]
        [AUTO_INCREMENT] [ZEROFILL] [UNIQUE [KEY] | [PRIMARY] KEY]
        [INVISIBLE] [{WITH|WITHOUT} SYSTEM VERSIONING]
        [COMMENT 'string'] [REF_SYSTEM_ID = value]
        [reference_definition]
      | data_type [GENERATED ALWAYS] 
      AS [ ROW {START|END} [NOT NULL ENABLE] [[PRIMARY] KEY]
            | (expression) [VIRTUAL | PERSISTENT | STORED] ]
          [INVISIBLE] [UNIQUE [KEY]] [COMMENT 'string']
    
    constraint_definition:
       CONSTRAINT [constraint_name] CHECK (expression)
    CREATE TABLE b(for_key INT REFERENCES a(not_key));
    CREATE TABLE b(for_key INT REFERENCES a(not_key));
    CREATE TABLE t1 (a INT DEFAULT (1+1), b INT DEFAULT (a+1));
    CREATE TABLE t2 (a BIGINT PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT UUID_SHORT());
    ### INSERT INTO `securedb`.`t_long_keys`
    ### SET
    ###   @1=1 /* INT meta=0 nullable=0 is_null=0 */
    ###   @2='a' /* VARSTRING(4073) meta=4073 nullable=1 is_null=0 */
    ###   @3=580 /* LONGINT meta=0 nullable=1 is_null=0 */
    CREATE TABLE t_long_keys (   a INT PRIMARY KEY,   b  VARCHAR(4073),   UNIQUE KEY `uk_b` (b) ) ENGINE=InnoDB;
    Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.022 sec)
    
    show create table t_long_keys\G
    *************************** 1. row ***************************
           Table: t_long_keys
    Create Table: CREATE TABLE `t_long_keys` (
      `a` int(11) NOT NULL,
      `b` varchar(4073) DEFAULT NULL,
      PRIMARY KEY (`a`),
      UNIQUE KEY `uk_b` (`b`) USING HASH
    ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 COLLATE=latin1_swedish_ci
    1 row in set (0.001 sec)
    
    select * from information_schema.INNODB_SYS_TABLES where name like '%t_long_keys%';;
    +----------+----------------------+------+--------+-------+------------+---------------+------------+
    | TABLE_ID | NAME                 | FLAG | N_COLS | SPACE | ROW_FORMAT | ZIP_PAGE_SIZE | SPACE_TYPE |
    +----------+----------------------+------+--------+-------+------------+---------------+------------+
    |       64 | securedb/t_long_keys |   33 |      5 |    43 | Dynamic    |             0 | Single     |
    +----------+----------------------+------+--------+-------+------------+---------------+------------+
    1 row in set (0.003 sec)
    
    
    
    select * from information_schema.INNODB_SYS_COLUMNS where TABLE_ID=64;
    +----------+---------------+-------+-------+--------+------+
    | TABLE_ID | NAME          | POS   | MTYPE | PRTYPE | LEN  |
    +----------+---------------+-------+-------+--------+------+
    |       64 | a             |     0 |     6 |   1283 |    4 |
    |       64 | b             |     1 |     1 | 528399 | 4073 |
    |       64 | DB_ROW_HASH_1 | 65538 |     6 |   9736 |    8 |
    +----------+---------------+-------+-------+--------+------+
    
    CREATE TABLE t1(g GEOMETRY(9,4) REF_SYSTEM_ID=101);
    index_definition:
        {INDEX|KEY} [index_name] [index_type] (index_col_name,...) [index_option] ...
      {{{|}}} {FULLTEXT|SPATIAL} [INDEX|KEY] [index_name] (index_col_name,...) [index_option] ...
      {{{|}}} [CONSTRAINT [symbol]] PRIMARY KEY [index_type] (index_col_name,...) [index_option] ...
      {{{|}}} [CONSTRAINT [symbol]] UNIQUE [INDEX|KEY] [index_name] [index_type] (index_col_name,...) [index_option] ...
      {{{|}}} [CONSTRAINT [symbol]] FOREIGN KEY [index_name] (index_col_name,...) reference_definition
    
    index_col_name:
        col_name [(length)] [ASC | DESC]
    
    index_type:
        USING {BTREE | HASH | RTREE}
    
    index_option:
        [ KEY_BLOCK_SIZE [=] value
      {{{|}}} index_type
      {{{|}}} WITH PARSER parser_name
      {{{|}}} VISIBLE
      {{{|}}} COMMENT 'string'
      {{{|}}} CLUSTERING={YES| NO} ]
      [ IGNORED | NOT IGNORED ]
    
    reference_definition:
        REFERENCES tbl_name (index_col_name,...)
          [MATCH FULL | MATCH PARTIAL | MATCH SIMPLE]
          [ON DELETE reference_option]
          [ON UPDATE reference_option]
    
    reference_option:
        RESTRICT | CASCADE | SET NULL | NO ACTION
    period_definition:
        PERIOD FOR [time_period_name | SYSTEM_TIME] (start_column_name, end_column_name)
    CREATE TABLE t1 (a INT CHECK(a>0) ,b INT CHECK (b> 0), CONSTRAINT abc CHECK (a>b));
    <OPTION_NAME> = <option_value>, [<OPTION_NAME> = <option_value> ...]
    table_option:    
        [STORAGE] ENGINE [=] engine_name
      | AUTO_INCREMENT [=] number
      | AVG_ROW_LENGTH [=] number
      | [DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET [=] <a data-footnote-ref href="#user-content-fn-7">charset_name</a>
      | CHECKSUM [=] {0 | 1}
      | [DEFAULT] COLLATE [=] <a data-footnote-ref href="#user-content-fn-7">collation_name</a>
      | COMMENT [=] 'string'
      | CONNECTION [=] 'connect_string'
      | DATA DIRECTORY [=] 'absolute path to directory'
      | DELAY_KEY_WRITE [=] {0 | 1}
      | ENCRYPTED [=] {YES | NO}
      | ENCRYPTION_KEY_ID [=] number
      | IETF_QUOTES [=] {YES | NO}
      | INDEX DIRECTORY [=] 'absolute path to directory'
      | INSERT_METHOD [=] { NO | FIRST | LAST }
      | KEY_BLOCK_SIZE [=] number
      | MAX_ROWS [=] number
      | MIN_ROWS [=] number
      | PACK_KEYS [=] {0 | 1 | DEFAULT}
      | PAGE_CHECKSUM [=] {0 | 1}
      | PAGE_COMPRESSED [=] {0 | 1}
      | PAGE_COMPRESSION_LEVEL [=] {0 .. 9}
      | PASSWORD [=] 'string'
      | ROW_FORMAT [=] {DEFAULT|DYNAMIC|FIXED|COMPRESSED|REDUNDANT|COMPACT|PAGE}
      | SEQUENCE [=] {0|1}
      | STATS_AUTO_RECALC [=] {DEFAULT|0|1}
      | STATS_PERSISTENT [=] {DEFAULT|0|1}
      | STATS_SAMPLE_PAGES [=] {DEFAULT|number}
      | TABLESPACE tablespace_name
      | TRANSACTIONAL [=]  {0 | 1}
      | UNION [=] (tbl_name[,tbl_name]...)
      | WITH SYSTEM VERSIONING
    partition_options:
        PARTITION BY
            { [LINEAR] HASH(expr)
            | [LINEAR] KEY(column_list)
            | RANGE(expr)
            | LIST(expr)
            | SYSTEM_TIME [INTERVAL time_quantity <a data-footnote-ref href="#user-content-fn-8">time_unit</a>] [LIMIT num] }
        [PARTITIONS num]
        [SUBPARTITION BY
            { [LINEAR] HASH(expr)
            | [LINEAR] KEY(column_list) }
          [SUBPARTITIONS num]
        ]
        [(partition_definition [, partition_definition] ...)]
    
    
    partition_definition:
        [PARTITION] partition_name
            [VALUES {LESS THAN {(expr) | MAXVALUE} | IN (value_list)}]
            [[STORAGE] ENGINE [=] engine_name]
            [COMMENT [=] 'comment_text' ]
            [DATA DIRECTORY [=] 'data_dir']
            [INDEX DIRECTORY [=] 'index_dir']
            [MAX_ROWS [=] max_number_of_rows]
            [MIN_ROWS [=] min_number_of_rows]
            [TABLESPACE [=] tablespace_name]
            [NODEGROUP [=] node_group_id]
            [(subpartition_definition [, subpartition_definition] ...)]
    
    
    subpartition_definition:
        SUBPARTITION logical_name
            [[STORAGE] ENGINE [=] engine_name]
            [COMMENT [=] 'comment_text' ]
            [DATA DIRECTORY [=] 'data_dir']
            [INDEX DIRECTORY [=] 'index_dir']
            [MAX_ROWS [=] max_number_of_rows]
            [MIN_ROWS [=] min_number_of_rows]
            [TABLESPACE [=] tablespace_name]
            [NODEGROUP [=] node_group_id]
    CREATE TABLE t1 (a INT, b CHAR(5), c DATETIME)
        PARTITION BY HASH ( YEAR(c) );
    CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE t1 (x INT)
      PARTITION BY RANGE(x) (
        PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (10),
        PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (20),
        PARTITION p3 VALUES LESS THAN (30),
        PARTITION p4 VALUES LESS THAN (40),
        PARTITION p5 VALUES LESS THAN (50),
        PARTITION pn VALUES LESS THAN MAXVALUE);
    CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE t1 (x INT)
      PARTITION BY RANGE(x) (
        p1 VALUES LESS THAN (10),
        p2 VALUES LESS THAN (20),
        p3 VALUES LESS THAN (30),
        p4 VALUES LESS THAN (40),
        p5 VALUES LESS THAN (50),
        pn VALUES LESS THAN MAXVALUE);
    CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE t1 (x INT)
      PARTITION BY RANGE(x) (
        PARTITION p1 VALUES LESS THAN (10),
        PARTITION p2 VALUES LESS THAN (20),
        PARTITION p3 VALUES LESS THAN (30),
        PARTITION p4 VALUES LESS THAN (40),
        PARTITION p5 VALUES LESS THAN (50),
        PARTITION pn VALUES LESS THAN MAXVALUE);
    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS test (
    a BIGINT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(128) CHARSET utf8,
    KEY name (name(32))
    ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET latin1;
    CREATE TABLE t1(
      a INT DEFAULT (1+1),
      b INT DEFAULT (a+1),
      expires DATETIME DEFAULT(NOW() + INTERVAL 1 YEAR),
      x BLOB DEFAULT USER()
    );
    MariaDB 10.8
    MariaDB 10.8