SHOW DATABASES

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

Synopsis

Required privileges

No privileges are required to list the databases in the CockroachDB cluster.

Example

Show databases

> SHOW DATABASES;

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

New in v19.2: 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 v2.1 or later will include three 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.

• An empty database called postgres is provided for compatibility with Postgres client applications that require it.

• The startrek database contains quotes from episodes.

• The system database contains CockroachDB metadata and is read-only.

The postgres and defaultdb databases can be deleted if they are not needed.

See also

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