Creating Databases

Go Up to Database Configuration and Maintenance

You can create databases on local and remote servers using IBConsole with the Create Database dialog.

You can use any of the following methods to access the Create Database dialog:

• In the Tree pane, select a server or anywhere in the branch under the desired server and choose Database|Create Database.
• In the Tree pane, right click the Databases branch under the desired server, and select Create Database from the context menu.

To Create a Database:

1. Ensure that the server indicated is correct. If it is not, cancel this dialog and re-initiate it under the correct server.
2. Type an Alias name for the new database in the Alias text field.
3. On the Files section, click to set the name and destination folder of your backup.
   To use multiple files, select Use Multiple Files and click to add files.
   Note:
   Database files must reside on a local drive.
4. You can specify create options by entering a valid value, by clicking the option value and choosing a new value from a drop-down list of values or by double-clicking the option value to rotate its value to the next in the list of values. For more information, see Database Options below.
   To create a basic database without any options, leave all options blank.
5. Click OK to create the specified database.
   Important:
   The alias name that you specify when creating a database references the necessary database file information associated with the database. When performing database configuration and maintenance, you need to specify only the alias name, not the actual database filename. If the database spans multiple files, the server uses the header page of each file to locate additional files.

Database Options

The database options that you can set are Page Size, Default Character Set, and SQL dialect.

Page Size (Database Options)

InterBase supports database page sizes of 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, and 16384 bytes. The default is 4096 bytes.

Default Character Set

See Character Set setting on the page Options Tab for a detailed explanation of character sets.

For more information about creating databases, see the Language Reference Guide. See the Data Definition Guide for an explanation of character sets.

SQL Dialect

An InterBase database SQL dialect determines how double quotes, large exact numerics, and certain data types such as SQL DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP are interpreted. In most cases you should create databases in dialect 3 in order to have access to all current InterBase features.

Changing a database dialect from 1 to 3 may require some preparation if it contains DATE data types, DECIMAL or NUMERIC data types with precision greater than 9, or has strings that are in double quotes rather than single quotes. For more information about dialects, refer to Understanding SQL Dialects in the migration appendix of the Operations Guide.

To Change the Database Dialect:

1. Highlight the database in the Tree pane and perform one of the following actions:
   • Choose Database|Properties.
   • Right-click and choose Properties from the context menu.
   • Double-click Properties in the Work pane.
2. Click the General tab and change the SQL dialect in the Options field.

Tip:
To suppress the display of system tables in IBConsole, deselect System Data from the View menu.

See Also

• Database Files
• Read-write and Read-only Databases
• Dropping Databases
• Removing Database Backup Files
• Setting Database Properties

Advance To:

• Dropping Databases