Question

I got one suggestion form stackoverflow.com to create schema in a specific database as follows:

CREATE DATABASE foo; 
 \connect foo; 
CREATE SCHEMA yourschema; 

But I am getting error as follows:

ERROR: syntax error at or near “\” LINE 2: \connect foo;
^

*** Error ***

ERROR: syntax error at or near “\”

Situation :

Login as postgress
create user u1
create database db1 with owner u1
\connect u1
create schema s1

Please help me in creating schema in a specific db.

Answer 1

This works, if – and only if – you’re using psql:

postgres@berry-pc:~$ psql template1
psql (8.4.10)
Type "help" for help.

template1=# CREATE DATABASE foo;
CREATE DATABASE
template1=# \connect foo;
psql (8.4.10)
You are now connected to database "foo".
foo=# \connect template1
psql (8.4.10)
You are now connected to database "template1".
template1=# DROP DATABASE foo;
DROP DATABASE
template1=# \q

\connect is a psql command. It’s not normal SQL, so you can’t use that in a .sql file. There is no way to do it from within a sql file, as far as I know. The rationale behind this, is that you should reconnect to a different database once you want to use that different database. This is for database separation. The reason MySQL has implemented the use $database syntax is because of it’s lack of schema’s, but PostgreSQL doesn’t have a command like that, as a database should be separated in schema’s, rather than databases.