CREATE TABLE

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CockroachDB v1.0 is no longer supported as of November 10, 2018. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.

The CREATE TABLE statement creates a new table in a database.

Required Privileges

The user must have the CREATE privilege on the parent database.

Synopsis

column_def ::=

col_qual_list ::=

index_def ::=

**family_def ::=**

**table_constraint ::=**

opt_interleave ::=

Tip:

To create a table from the results of a SELECT statement, use CREATE TABLE AS.

Parameters

Parameter	Description
`IF NOT EXISTS`	Create a new table only if a table of the same name does not already exist in the database; if one does exist, do not return an error. Note that `IF NOT EXISTS` checks the table name only; it does not check if an existing table has the same columns, indexes, constraints, etc., of the new table.
`any_name`	The name of the table to create, which must be unique within its database and follow these identifier rules. When the parent database is not set as the default, the name must be formatted as `database.name`. The `UPSERT` and `INSERT ON CONFLICT` statements use a temporary table called `excluded` to handle uniqueness conflicts during execution. It's therefore not recommended to use the name `excluded` for any of your tables.
`column_def`	A comma-separated list of column definitions. Each column requires a name/identifier and data type; optionally, a column-level constraint can be specified. Column names must be unique within the table but can have the same name as indexes or constraints. Any Primary Key, Unique, and Check constraints defined at the column level are moved to the table-level as part of the table's creation. Use the `SHOW CREATE TABLE` statement to view them at the table level.
`index_def`	An optional, comma-separated list of index definitions. For each index, the column(s) to index must be specified; optionally, a name can be specified. Index names must be unique within the table and follow these identifier rules. See the Create a Table with Secondary Indexes example below. The `CREATE INDEX` statement can be used to create an index separate from table creation.
`family_def`	An optional, comma-separated list of column family definitions. Column family names must be unique within the table but can have the same name as columns, constraints, or indexes. A column family is a group of columns that are stored as a single key-value pair in the underlying key-value store. CockroachDB automatically groups columns into families to ensure efficient storage and performance. However, there are cases when you may want to manually assign columns to families. For more details, see Column Families.
`table_constraint`	An optional, comma-separated list of table-level constraints. Constraint names must be unique within the table but can have the same name as columns, column families, or indexes.
`opt_interleave`	You can potentially optimize query performance by interleaving tables, which changes how CockroachDB stores your data.

Table-Level Replication

By default, tables are created in the default replication zone but can be placed into a specific replication zone. See Create a Replication Zone for a Table for more information.

Examples

Create a Table (No Primary Key Defined)

In CockroachDB, every table requires a primary key. If one is not explicitly defined, a column called rowid of the type INT is added automatically as the primary key, with the unique_rowid() function used to ensure that new rows always default to unique rowid values. The primary key is automatically indexed.

Note:

Strictly speaking, a primary key's unique index is not created; it is derived from the key(s) under which the data is stored, so it takes no additional space. However, it appears as a normal unique index when using commands like SHOW INDEX.

> CREATE TABLE logon (
    user_id INT,
    logon_date DATE
);

> SHOW COLUMNS FROM logon;

+------------+------+------+---------+---------+
|   Field    | Type | Null | Default | Indices |
+------------+------+------+---------+---------+
| user_id    | INT  | true | NULL    | {}      |
| logon_date | DATE | true | NULL    | {}      |
+------------+------+------+---------+---------+
(2 rows)

> SHOW INDEX FROM logon;

+-------+---------+--------+-----+--------+-----------+---------+----------+
| Table |  Name   | Unique | Seq | Column | Direction | Storing | Implicit |
+-------+---------+--------+-----+--------+-----------+---------+----------+
| logon | primary | true   |   1 | rowid  | ASC       | false   | false    |
+-------+---------+--------+-----+--------+-----------+---------+----------+
(1 row)

Create a Table (Primary Key Defined)

In this example, we create a table with three columns. One column is the primary key, another is given the Unique constraint, and the third has no constraints. The primary key and column with the Unique constraint are automatically indexed.

> CREATE TABLE logoff (
    user_id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    user_email STRING UNIQUE,
    logoff_date DATE
);

> SHOW COLUMNS FROM logoff;

+-------------+--------+-------+---------+---------------------------------+
|    Field    |  Type  | Null  | Default |             Indices             |
+-------------+--------+-------+---------+---------------------------------+
| user_id     | INT    | false | NULL    | {primary,logoff_user_email_key} |
| user_email  | STRING | true  | NULL    | {logoff_user_email_key}         |
| logoff_date | DATE   | true  | NULL    | {}                              |
+-------------+--------+-------+---------+---------------------------------+
(3 rows)

> SHOW INDEX FROM logoff;

+--------+-----------------------+--------+-----+------------+-----------+---------+----------+
| Table  |         Name          | Unique | Seq |   Column   | Direction | Storing | Implicit |
+--------+-----------------------+--------+-----+------------+-----------+---------+----------+
| logoff | primary               | true   |   1 | user_id    | ASC       | false   | false    |
| logoff | logoff_user_email_key | true   |   1 | user_email | ASC       | false   | false    |
| logoff | logoff_user_email_key | true   |   2 | user_id    | ASC       | false   | true     |
+--------+-----------------------+--------+-----+------------+-----------+---------+----------+
(3 rows)

Create a Table with Secondary Indexes

In this example, we create two secondary indexes during table creation. Secondary indexes allow efficient access to data with keys other than the primary key. This example also demonstrates a number of column-level and table-level constraints.

> CREATE TABLE product_information (
    product_id           INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
    product_name         STRING(50) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    product_description  STRING(2000),
    category_id          STRING(1) NOT NULL CHECK (category_id IN ('A','B','C')),
    weight_class         INT,
    warranty_period      INT CONSTRAINT valid_warranty CHECK (warranty_period BETWEEN 0 AND 24),
    supplier_id          INT,
    product_status       STRING(20),
    list_price           DECIMAL(8,2),
    min_price            DECIMAL(8,2),
    catalog_url          STRING(50) UNIQUE,
    date_added           DATE DEFAULT CURRENT_DATE(),
    CONSTRAINT price_check CHECK (list_price >= min_price),
    INDEX date_added_idx (date_added),
    INDEX supp_id_prod_status_idx (supplier_id, product_status)
);

> SHOW INDEX FROM product_information;

+---------------------+--------------------------------------+--------+-----+----------------+-----------+---------+----------+
|        Table        |                 Name                 | Unique | Seq |     Column     | Direction | Storing | Implicit |
+---------------------+--------------------------------------+--------+-----+----------------+-----------+---------+----------+
| product_information | primary                              | true   |   1 | product_id     | ASC       | false   | false    |
| product_information | product_information_product_name_key | true   |   1 | product_name   | ASC       | false   | false    |
| product_information | product_information_product_name_key | true   |   2 | product_id     | ASC       | false   | true     |
| product_information | product_information_catalog_url_key  | true   |   1 | catalog_url    | ASC       | false   | false    |
| product_information | product_information_catalog_url_key  | true   |   2 | product_id     | ASC       | false   | true     |
| product_information | date_added_idx                       | false  |   1 | date_added     | ASC       | false   | false    |
| product_information | date_added_idx                       | false  |   2 | product_id     | ASC       | false   | true     |
| product_information | supp_id_prod_status_idx              | false  |   1 | supplier_id    | ASC       | false   | false    |
| product_information | supp_id_prod_status_idx              | false  |   2 | product_status | ASC       | false   | false    |
| product_information | supp_id_prod_status_idx              | false  |   3 | product_id     | ASC       | false   | true     |
+---------------------+--------------------------------------+--------+-----+----------------+-----------+---------+----------+
(10 rows)

We also have other resources on indexes:

Create indexes for existing tables using CREATE INDEX.
Learn more about indexes.

Create a Table with Auto-Generated Unique Row IDs

To auto-generate unique row IDs, use the SERIAL data type, which is an alias for INT with the unique_rowid() function as the default value:

> CREATE TABLE test (id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, name STRING);

On insert, the unique_rowid() function generates a default value from the timestamp and ID of the node executing the insert, a combination that is likely to be globally unique except in extreme cases where a very large number of IDs (100,000+) are generated per node per second. In such cases, you should use a BYTES column with the uuid_v4() function as the default value instead:

> CREATE TABLE test (id BYTES PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT uuid_v4(), name STRING);

Because BYTES values are 128-bit, much larger than INT values at 64-bit, there is virtually no chance of generating non-unique values.

The distribution of IDs at the key-value level may also be a consideration. When using BYTES with uuid_v4() as the default value, consecutively generated IDs will be spread across different key-value ranges (and therefore likely across different nodes), whereas when using INT with unique_rowid() as the default value, consecutively generated IDs may end up in the same key-value range.

Create a Table with Foreign Keys

Foreign keys guarantee a column uses only values that already exist in the column it references, which must be from another table. This constraint enforces referential integrity between the two tables.

There are a number of rules that govern foreign keys, but the two most important are:

Foreign key columns must be indexed when creating the table using INDEX, PRIMARY KEY, or UNIQUE.
Referenced columns must contain only unique values. This means the REFERENCES clause must use exactly the same columns as a Primary Key or Unique constraint.

In this example, we'll show a series of tables using different formats of foreign keys.

> CREATE TABLE customers (id INT PRIMARY KEY, email STRING UNIQUE);

> CREATE TABLE products (sku STRING PRIMARY KEY, price DECIMAL(9,2));

> CREATE TABLE orders (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  product STRING NOT NULL REFERENCES products,
  quantity INT,
  customer INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT valid_customer REFERENCES customers (id),
  CONSTRAINT id_customer_unique UNIQUE (id, customer),
  INDEX (product),
  INDEX (customer)
);

> CREATE TABLE reviews (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  product STRING NOT NULL REFERENCES products,
  customer INT NOT NULL,
  "order" INT NOT NULL,
  body STRING,
  CONSTRAINT order_customer_fk FOREIGN KEY ("order", customer) REFERENCES orders (id, customer),
  INDEX (product),
  INDEX (customer),
  INDEX ("order", customer)
);

Create a Table that Mirrors Key-Value Storage

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database built on a transactional and strongly-consistent key-value store. Although it is not possible to access the key-value store directly, you can mirror direct access using a "simple" table of two columns, with one set as the primary key:

> CREATE TABLE kv (k INT PRIMARY KEY, v BYTES);

When such a "simple" table has no indexes or foreign keys, INSERT/UPSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statements translate to key-value operations with minimal overhead (single digit percent slowdowns). For example, the following UPSERT to add or replace a row in the table would translate into a single key-value Put operation:

> UPSERT INTO kv VALUES (1, b'hello')

This SQL table approach also offers you a well-defined query language, a known transaction model, and the flexibility to add more columns to the table if the need arises.

Create a Table from a `SELECT` Statement

You can use the CREATE TABLE AS statement to create a new table from the results of a SELECT statement, for example:

> SELECT * FROM customers WHERE state = 'NY';

+----+---------+-------+
| id |  name   | state |
+----+---------+-------+
|  6 | Dorotea | NY    |
| 15 | Thales  | NY    |
+----+---------+-------+

> CREATE TABLE customers_ny AS SELECT * FROM customers WHERE state = 'NY';

> SELECT * FROM customers_ny;

+----+---------+-------+
| id |  name   | state |
+----+---------+-------+
|  6 | Dorotea | NY    |
| 15 | Thales  | NY    |
+----+---------+-------+

Show the Definition of a Table

To show the definition of a table, use the SHOW CREATE TABLE statement. The contents of the CreateTable column in the response is a string with embedded line breaks that, when echoed, produces formatted output.

> SHOW CREATE TABLE logoff;

+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Table  |                       CreateTable                        |
+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| logoff | CREATE TABLE logoff (                                    |
|        |     user_id INT NOT NULL,                                |
|        |     user_email STRING(50) NULL,                          |
|        |     logoff_date DATE NULL,                               |
|        |     CONSTRAINT "primary" PRIMARY KEY (user_id),          |
|        |     UNIQUE INDEX logoff_user_email_key (user_email),     |
|        |     FAMILY "primary" (user_id, user_email, logoff_date)  |
|        | )                                                        |
+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
(1 row)

Cockroach
University

Docs Hub

CREATE TABLE

Required Privileges

Synopsis

Parameters

Table-Level Replication

Examples

Create a Table (No Primary Key Defined)

Create a Table (Primary Key Defined)

Create a Table with Secondary Indexes

Create a Table with Auto-Generated Unique Row IDs

Create a Table with Foreign Keys

Create a Table that Mirrors Key-Value Storage

Create a Table from a `SELECT` Statement

Show the Definition of a Table

See Also

Cockroach University

Docs Hub

Cockroach University

Docs Hub

CREATE TABLE

Required Privileges

Synopsis

Parameters

Table-Level Replication

Examples

Create a Table (No Primary Key Defined)

Create a Table (Primary Key Defined)

Create a Table with Secondary Indexes

Create a Table with Auto-Generated Unique Row IDs

Create a Table with Foreign Keys

Create a Table that Mirrors Key-Value Storage

Create a Table from a SELECT Statement

Show the Definition of a Table

See Also

Cockroach
University

Cockroach
University

Create a Table from a `SELECT` Statement