[sql] Simulate CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS for PostgreSQL?

I want to create a database which does not exist through JDBC. Unlike MySQL, PostgreSQL does not support create if not exists syntax. What is the best way to accomplish this?

The application does not know if the database exists or not. It should check and if the database exists it should be used. So it makes sense to connect to the desired database and if connection fails due to non-existence of database it should create new database (by connecting to the default postgres database). I checked the error code returned by Postgres but I could not find any relevant code that species the same.

Another method to achieve this would be to connect to the postgres database and check if the desired database exists and take action accordingly. The second one is a bit tedious to work out.

Is there any way to achieve this functionality in Postgres?

Just create the database using createdb CLI tool:

PGHOST="my.database.domain.com"
PGUSER="postgres"
PGDB="mydb"
createdb -h $PGHOST -p $PGPORT -U $PGUSER $PGDB

If the database exists, it will return an error:

createdb: database creation failed: ERROR:  database "mydb" already exists

I had to use a slightly extended version @Erwin Brandstetter used:

DO
$do$
DECLARE
  _db TEXT := 'some_db';
  _user TEXT := 'postgres_user';
  _password TEXT := 'password';
BEGIN
  CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS dblink; -- enable extension 
  IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM pg_database WHERE datname = _db) THEN
    RAISE NOTICE 'Database already exists';
  ELSE
    PERFORM dblink_connect('host=localhost user=' || _user || ' password=' || _password || ' dbname=' || current_database());
    PERFORM dblink_exec('CREATE DATABASE ' || _db);
  END IF;
END
$do$

I had to enable the dblink extension, plus i had to provide the credentials for dblink. Works with Postgres 9.4.

Upgrade to PostgreSQL 9.5 or greater. If (not) exists was introduced in version 9.5.

If you don't care about the data, you can drop database first and then recreate it:

DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS dbname;
CREATE DATABASE dbname;

another alternative, just in case you want to have a shell script which creates the database if it does not exist and otherwise just keeps it as it is:

psql -U postgres -tc "SELECT 1 FROM pg_database WHERE datname = 'my_db'" | grep -q 1 || psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE my_db"

I found this to be helpful in devops provisioning scripts, which you might want to run multiple times over the same instance.

For those of you who would like an explanation:

-c = run command in database session, command is given in string
-t = skip header and footer
-q = silent mode for grep 
|| = logical OR, if grep fails to find match run the subsequent command

PostgreSQL does not support IF NOT EXISTS for CREATE DATABASE statement. It is supported only in CREATE SCHEMA. Moreover CREATE DATABASE cannot be issued in transaction therefore it cannot be in DO block with exception catching.

When CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS is issued and schema already exists then notice (not error) with duplicate object information is raised.

To solve these problems you need to use dblink extension which opens a new connection to database server and execute query without entering into transaction. You can reuse connection parameters with supplying empty string.

Below is PL/pgSQL code which fully simulates CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS with same behavior like in CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS. It calls CREATE DATABASE via dblink, catch duplicate_database exception (which is issued when database already exists) and converts it into notice with propagating errcode. String message has appended , skipping in the same way how it does CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS.

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS dblink;

DO $$
BEGIN
PERFORM dblink_exec('', 'CREATE DATABASE testdb');
EXCEPTION WHEN duplicate_database THEN RAISE NOTICE '%, skipping', SQLERRM USING ERRCODE = SQLSTATE;
END
$$;

This solution is without any race condition like in other answers, where database can be created by external process (or other instance of same script) between checking if database exists and its own creation.

Moreover when CREATE DATABASE fails with other error than database already exists then this error is propagated as error and not silently discarded. There is only catch for duplicate_database error. So it really behaves as IF NOT EXISTS should.

You can put this code into own function, call it directly or from transaction. Just rollback (restore dropped database) would not work.

Testing output (called two times via DO and then directly):

$ sudo -u postgres psql
psql (9.6.12)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# \set ON_ERROR_STOP on
postgres=# \set VERBOSITY verbose
postgres=# 
postgres=# CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS dblink;
CREATE EXTENSION
postgres=# DO $$
postgres$# BEGIN
postgres$# PERFORM dblink_exec('', 'CREATE DATABASE testdb');
postgres$# EXCEPTION WHEN duplicate_database THEN RAISE NOTICE '%, skipping', SQLERRM USING ERRCODE = SQLSTATE;
postgres$# END
postgres$# $$;
DO
postgres=# 
postgres=# CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS dblink;
NOTICE:  42710: extension "dblink" already exists, skipping
LOCATION:  CreateExtension, extension.c:1539
CREATE EXTENSION
postgres=# DO $$
postgres$# BEGIN
postgres$# PERFORM dblink_exec('', 'CREATE DATABASE testdb');
postgres$# EXCEPTION WHEN duplicate_database THEN RAISE NOTICE '%, skipping', SQLERRM USING ERRCODE = SQLSTATE;
postgres$# END
postgres$# $$;
NOTICE:  42P04: database "testdb" already exists, skipping
LOCATION:  exec_stmt_raise, pl_exec.c:3165
DO
postgres=# 
postgres=# CREATE DATABASE testdb;
ERROR:  42P04: database "testdb" already exists
LOCATION:  createdb, dbcommands.c:467

If you can use shell, try

psql -U postgres -c 'select 1' -d $DB &>dev/null || psql -U postgres -tc 'create database $DB'

I think psql -U postgres -c "select 1" -d $DB is easier than SELECT 1 FROM pg_database WHERE datname = 'my_db',and only need one type of quote, easier to combine with sh -c.

I use this in my ansible task

- name: create service database
  shell: docker exec postgres sh -c '{ psql -U postgres -tc "SELECT 1" -d {{service_name}} &> /dev/null && echo -n 1; } || { psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE {{service_name}}"}'
  register: shell_result
  changed_when: "shell_result.stdout != '1'"