Slide 14.7: The CREATE TABLE statement

The CREATE TABLE Statement

The syntax of creating a table in a database is given on the right.

   CREATE TABLE  table_name (
     column_name1  data_type,
     column_name2  data_type,
     ....... )

The example on the right demonstrates how to create a table named Persons, with four columns: LastName, FirstName, Address, and City:

  SQL> create table  Persons (
    2    LastName   varchar(32),
    3    FirstName  varchar(32),
    4    Address    varchar(64),
    5    City       varchar(16) );

  Table created.

The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. The table below contains the most common data types in SQL:

Data Type	Description
`integer(size) int(size) smallint(size) tinyint(size)`	Hold integers only. The maximum number of digits are specified in parenthesis.

`decimal(size,d) numeric(size,d)`	Hold numbers with fractions. The maximum number of digits are specified in “size.” The maximum number of digits to the right of the decimal is specified in ‘d’.

`char(size)`	Holds a fixed length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special characters). The fixed size is specified in parenthesis.

`varchar(size)`	Holds a variable length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special characters). The maximum size is specified in parenthesis.

`date(yyyymmdd)`	Holds a date.