SHOW DATABASES

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The SHOW DATABASES statement lists all databases in the CockroachDB cluster.

Synopsis

Required privileges

The user must be granted the SELECT privilege to specific databases in order to list those databases in the CockroachDB cluster.

Example

Show databases

> SHOW DATABASES;

  database_name
+---------------+
  defaultdb
  movr
  postgres
  startrek
  system
(5 rows)

Alternatively, within the built-in SQL shell, you can use the \l shell command to list all databases:

> \l

  database_name
+---------------+
  defaultdb
  movr
  postgres
  startrek
  system
(5 rows)

Show databases with comments

You can use COMMENT ON to add comments on a database.

> COMMENT ON DATABASE movr IS 'This database holds information about users, vehicles, and rides.';

To view a database's comments:

> SHOW DATABASES WITH COMMENT;

  database_name |                              comment
+---------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
  defaultdb     | NULL
  movr          | This database holds information about users, vehicles, and rides.
  postgres      | NULL
  startrek      | NULL
  system        | NULL
(5 rows)

For more information, see COMMENT ON.

Preloaded databases

New clusters and existing clusters upgraded to v21.1 or later will include auto-generated databases, with the following purposes:

• The empty defaultdb database is used if a client does not specify a database in the connection parameters.
• The movr database contains data about users, vehicles, and rides for the vehicle-sharing app MovR.
• The empty postgres database is provided for compatibility with PostgreSQL client applications that require it.
• The startrek database contains quotes from episodes.
• The system database contains CockroachDB metadata and is read-only.

All databases except for the system database can be deleted if they are not needed.

See also

• COMMENT ON
• SHOW SCHEMAS
• Information Schema
• Other SQL Statements

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