# CREATE DATABASE

The `CREATE DATABASE` command creates a database.

> **📝 Note**: As a database is automatically assigned to you in a SingleStore Helios [Shared Edition](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/getting-started-with-singlestore-helios/about-singlestore-helios/singlestore-helios-editions/shared-edition.md) workspace, additional databases cannot be created. To create additional databases, and for even greater functionality, SingleStore recommends creating a [Standard](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/getting-started-with-singlestore-helios/about-singlestore-helios/singlestore-helios-editions.md) workspace.

## Syntax

> **📝 Note**: The following syntax block contains lines which are intentionally left blank.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE [IF NOT EXISTS] <database_name> [<sync_options>] [PARTITIONS n]
    [<create_specification>] 
[SUB_PARTITIONS n]
  
 [ON WORKSPACE <workspace_name>]  
 
<sync_options>: 
WITH {SYNC | ASYNC} DURABILITY 
 | WITH {SYNC | ASYNC} REPLICATION 
| WITH SYNC DURABILITY SYNC REPLICATION | WITH ASYNC DURABILITY ASYNC REPLICATION

<create_specification>:
    [DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET [=] charset_name 

 
 
 

 
 

-- "schema" is an alias for "database"
CREATE SCHEMA [IF NOT EXISTS]..
```

## Remarks

* `database_name` is the name to assign to this new SingleStore database. Do not use the `_XX` suffix (such as `test_database_01`) while naming a SingleStore Helios database as it may cause a mismatch with the database partition ordinals (sharded databases on each leaf node).
* Database names are case-sensitive. Databases named `DB` and `db` are not the same objects and will be treated as such when [granting](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/security-management-commands/grant.md) permissions to users.
* `CONFIG '{"verify_ssl":false|true}'` allows you to connect to an unverified SSL certificate in S3 when using the option `verify_ssl:false`
* `SYNC REPLICATION` is enabled by default thereby ensuring durability against all single-node failures. `SYNC DURABILITY` is enabled also by default but only for reference databases.
* SingleStore recommends to leave the default settings for durability and replication when creating a database. If you specify `SYNC DURABILITY` with the `CREATE DATABASE` command you will get it on all the partitions as well. This will have a non-trivial performance impact since it has to wait for Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). If you specify `ASYNC REPLICATION`, it can result in occasional data loss.
* `WITH {SYNC | ASYNC} REPLICATION` specifies whether high availability, redundancy-2 replication will be done synchronously or asynchronously. Synchronous replication from the master partitions will complete on all replicas before the commit of the transaction is acknowledged to the client application. If `WITH {SYNC | ASYNC} REPLICATION` is not specified, synchronous replication is used.
* High availability, redundancy-2 replication will always be done synchronously. The `WITH SYNC REPLICATION` clause can be optionally specified, but specifying it has no effect on replication behavior.
* `WITH {SYNC | ASYNC} DURABILITY` specifies whether in-memory database updates you make using [DDL](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/data-definition-language-ddl.md) and [DML](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/data-manipulation-language-dml.md) commands are also saved to the log on disk synchronously or asynchronously. Synchronous updates to the log on disk will complete before the commit of the transaction is acknowledged to the client application. If `WITH {SYNC | ASYNC} DURABILITY` is not specified, async durability is used.
  > **📝 Note**: `SYNC DURABILITY` cannot be disabled once a database is created.
* This command causes implicit commits. Refer to [COMMIT](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/data-manipulation-language-dml/commit.md) for more information.
* You cannot specify `WITH SYNC DURABILITY ASYNC REPLICATION`.
* `PARTITIONS n` allows you to set the total number of partitions that the data will be split into. By default this is controlled by the `default_partitions_per_leaf` variable. Note that `n` refers to the *total* number of partitions across all leaves. Refer to the [Flexible Parallelism](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/query-data/advanced-query-topics/flexible-parallelism.md) page for more information.
* `SUB_PARTITIONS n` allows you to set the number of sub-partitions for a database per physical partition at the time of database creation. Using this optional clause in the `CREATE DATABASE` command will override the value set by the `sub_to_physical_partition_ratio` variable. The value of `n` must be set at 0 or a power of 2 value of the physical partition count. For example, if the number of partitions is 6, the number of sub-partitions must be 6 \* (a power of 2 value). Refer to the [Flexible Parallelism](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/query-data/advanced-query-topics/flexible-parallelism.md) page for more information.
* The `CREATE DATABASE ... DEFAULT CHARSET=` syntax is accepted by SingleStore for compatibility with MySQL, but it has no effect. . Character set and collation defaults can be set during table creation. See [CREATE TABLE](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/data-definition-language-ddl/create-table.md) for more information.
* The `CREATE DATABASE ... ON WORKSPACE <workspace_name>;` syntax is used to create a read/write database within a workspace that has already been created. See [Compute Workspaces](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/getting-started-with-singlestore-helios/compute-workspaces.md) for more information.
* The `ceph_mode` flag has been deprecated.
* Refer to the [Permissions Matrix](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/security-management-commands/permissions-matrix.md) for the required permissions.

## Examples

## CREATE DATABASE with Default Options

The following example creates a local database that uses all of the default options.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS test;

```

## CREATE DATABASE on an Existing Workspace

The following example creates a database on an existing workspace.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS test1 ON WORKSPACE `test-wkspc-1`;
```

## CREATE DATABASE SUB\_PARTITIONS

The following command returns the default number of sub-partitions:

```sql
SELECT @@sub_to_physical_partition_ratio;
+-----------------------------------+
| @@sub_to_physical_partition_ratio |
+-----------------------------------+
|                                 4 |
+-----------------------------------+
```

The following example uses the `SUB_PARTITONS n` clause to create a database with 96 sub-partitions.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE test1 PARTITIONS 6 SUB_PARTITIONS 96;

```

```sql
SELECT DATABASE_NAME, NUM_PARTITIONS, NUM_SUB_PARTITIONS 
    FROM information_schema.distributed_databases
    WHERE DATABASE_NAME = 'test1';

```

```output

+---------------+----------------+--------------------+
| DATABASE_NAME | NUM_PARTITIONS | NUM_SUB_PARTITIONS |
+---------------+----------------+--------------------+
| test1         |              6 |                 96 |
+---------------+----------------+--------------------+

```

Assuming the default number of physical partitions is 8, the following example uses the `SUB_PARTITONS n` clause to create a database with 64 sub-partitions If n is not a power of 2 times the number of partitions (in this case, 6 \* 16 = 96), an error is generated and the database will not be created.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE test2 SUB_PARTITIONS 64;

```

```sql
SELECT DATABASE_NAME, NUM_PARTITIONS, NUM_SUB_PARTITIONS 
    FROM information_schema.distributed_databases
    WHERE DATABASE_NAME = 'test2';

```

```output

+---------------+----------------+--------------------+
| DATABASE_NAME | NUM_PARTITIONS | NUM_SUB_PARTITIONS |
+---------------+----------------+--------------------+
| test2         |              8 |                 64 |
+---------------+----------------+--------------------+

```

If `n` in the `SUB_PARTITIONS n` clause is not a power of 2, an error is generated and the database will not be created.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE test3 PARTITIONS 6 SUB_PARTITIONS 36;
ERROR 1504 (HY000): Value of sub_partitions (36) needs to be a power-of-2 multiple of the partition count (6)

```

```sql
CREATE DATABASE test4 SUB_PARTITIONS 40;
ERROR 1504 (HY000): Value of sub_partitions (40) needs to be a power-of-2 multiple of the partition count (8)

```

***

Modified at: June 11, 2026

Source: [/cloud/reference/sql-reference/data-definition-language-ddl/create-database/](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/data-definition-language-ddl/create-database/)

(An index of the documentation is available at /llms.txt)