Create database
CREATE DATABASE database_name;
The CREATE DATABASE
command in MySQL is used to create a new database.
-
CREATE DATABASE
: Command that creates a new database. -
database_name
: Name of the database you want to create. The name must be unique within the MySQL instance.
Notes:
- The database name must follow naming conventions and cannot contain certain special characters.
- If you try to create a database that already exists, MySQL will return an error. To avoid this, you can use the
IF NOT EXISTS
clause:
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS database_name;
This version only creates the database if it does not already exist, avoiding errors.
View Database
SHOW DATABASES;
The SHOW DATABASES;
command in MySQL is used to list all the databases available on the MySQL server instance you are connected to.
Example output:
+--------------------+
| Database |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql |
| performance_schema |
| sys |
| library_games |
+--------------------+
Explanation:
-
information_schema
,mysql
,performance_schema
, andsys
are system databases that MySQL uses to manage the instance itself and store information about privileges, performance, etc. - Any other databases listed are those that were created by you or by other applications, such as the
library_games
database in this example.
This command is useful for checking which databases are available to manage or query.
Connect to database
USE database_name;
The USE database_name;
command in MySQL is used to select a specific database and set it as the active database for the current session.
Create table
The CREATE TABLE
command is used in MySQL to create a new table within a database. The basic syntax of the command defines the names of the fields (columns) and their respective data types.
CREATE TABLE table_name (
field1 data_type,
field2 data_type,
...
fieldN data_type
);
Components:
-
table_name
: Name of the table you want to create. -
field1, field2, ... fieldN
: Names of the columns (fields) that the table will have. -
data_type
: The type of data that the column will store (such as INT, VARCHAR, DATE, etc.).
Practical example:
Suppose you are creating a table called games
to store information about games, where each game has an ID, a title, a genre, and a release date:
CREATE TABLE games (
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
title VARCHAR(100),
gender VARCHAR(50),
release_date DATE
);
Explanation:
-
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY
: Creates anid
column of type integer (INT
), which increments automatically and is the primary key of the table. -
title VARCHAR(100)
: Creates atitle
column that can store texts of up to 100 characters. -
genre VARCHAR(50)
: Creates agenre
column to store the genre of the game, with up to 50 characters. -
release_date DATE
: Creates a column to store the release date of the game in date format (DATE
).
Notes:
- It is important to define the correct data types for each field according to what you want to store.
- Defining a
PRIMARY KEY
ensures that the values in this column are unique for each row.
View contents of a table
The DESC
command (or its full form DESCRIBE
) is used in MySQL to display the structure of a table. It shows the column names, their data types, and other relevant information, such as whether the column allows null values or is part of a primary key.
DESC table_name;
ou
DESCRIBE table_name;
Example:
Suppose you want to see the structure of the games
table created earlier:
DESC games;
Example output:
+--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| title | varchar(100) | YES | | NULL | |
| gender | varchar(50) | YES | | NULL | |
| release_date | date | YES | | NULL | |
+--------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
Output Explanation:
-
Field
: Column name. -
Type
: The type of data stored in the column (such asint
,varchar
,date
). -
Null
: Indicates whether the column allows null values (YES
) or not (NO
). -
Key
: Shows whether the column is a key (PRI
for primary key,UNI
for unique key,MUL
for index with duplicate values allowed). -
Default
: The default value of the column, if any. -
Extra
: Additional information, such asauto_increment
.
This command is useful for quickly checking the structure of a table without having to look at the original creation code.