DevTut

# CREATE TABLE

# Create a New Table

A basic Employees table, containing an ID, and the employee's first and last name along with their phone number can be created using

CREATE TABLE Employees(
    Id int identity(1,1) primary key not null,
    FName varchar(20) not null,
    LName varchar(20) not null,
    PhoneNumber varchar(10) not null
);

This example is specific to Transact-SQL (opens new window)

CREATE TABLE creates a new table in the database, followed by the table name, Employees

This is then followed by the list of column names and their properties, such as the ID

Id int identity(1,1) not null
Value Meaning
Id the column's name.
int is the data type.
identity(1,1) states that column will have auto generated values starting at 1 and incrementing by 1 for each new row.
primary key states that all values in this column will have unique values
not null states that this column cannot have null values

# Create Table From Select

You may want to create a duplicate of a table:

CREATE TABLE ClonedEmployees AS SELECT * FROM Employees;

You can use any of the other features of a SELECT statement to modify the data before passing it to the new table. The columns of the new table are automatically created according to the selected rows.

CREATE TABLE ModifiedEmployees AS
SELECT Id, CONCAT(FName," ",LName) AS FullName FROM Employees
WHERE Id > 10;

# CREATE TABLE With FOREIGN KEY

Below you could find the table Employees with a reference to the table Cities.

CREATE TABLE Cities(
    CityID INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    Name VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
    Zip VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE Employees(
    EmployeeID INT IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL,
    FirstName VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
    LastName VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
    PhoneNumber VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
    CityID INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Cities(CityID)
);

Here could you find a database diagram.

Database diagram (opens new window)

The column CityID of table Employees will reference to the column CityID of table Cities. Below you could find the syntax to make this.

CityID INT FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Cities(CityID)
Value Meaning
CityID Name of the column
int type of the column
FOREIGN KEY Makes the foreign key (optional)
REFERENCES
Cities(CityID)		 Makes the reference
to the table Cities column CityID

Important: You couldn't make a reference to a table that not exists in the database. Be source to make first the table Cities and second the table Employees. If you do it vise versa, it will throw an error.

# Duplicate a table

To duplicate a table, simply do the following:

CREATE TABLE newtable LIKE oldtable; 
INSERT newtable SELECT * FROM oldtable;

# Create a Temporary or In-Memory Table

# PostgreSQL and SQLite

To create a temporary table local to the session:

CREATE TEMP TABLE MyTable(...);

# SQL Server

To create a temporary table local to the session:

CREATE TABLE #TempPhysical(...);

To create a temporary table visible to everyone:

CREATE TABLE ##TempPhysicalVisibleToEveryone(...);

To create an in-memory table:

DECLARE @TempMemory TABLE(...);

# Syntax

  • CREATE TABLE tableName( [ColumnName1] [datatype1] [, [ColumnName2] [datatype2] ...] )

# Parameters

Parameter Details
tableName The name of the table
columns Contains an 'enumeration' of all the columns that the table have. See Create a New Table for more details.

# Remarks

Table names must be unique.

← CREATE FUNCTION →