CREATE TABLE Statement in Oracle SQL – PLSQL

The CREATE TABLE statement in SQL allows us to create or define a new table in our database. It is a Data Definition Language (DDL) statement.

Syntax for the CREATE TABLE statement is:

CREATE TABLE table_name
(column_name1 datatype NULL/NOT NULL
,column_name2 datatype NULL/NOT NULL
,column_name3 datatype NULL/NOT NULL
.
.
);

Each column must have a data type. Also every column has to be defined as NULL or NOT NULL, if nothing is specified in NULL or NOT NULL place then the default value will be assumed as NULL.

Let’s take an example for understanding:

Suppose we want to create a table named “Employee” as shown below (without data).

Now we will see how we can use CREATE STATEMENT to create or define a new table in data base.

CREATE TABLE employee
(employee_id   NUMBER(10)    NOT NULL
,employee_name VARCHAR2(500) NOT NULL
,salary        NUMBER(20)    NOT NULL
,department    VARCHAR2(300) NOT NULL
,commission    NUMBER(20)
);

The above CREATE TABLE statement will create a new table named as employee in the data base having 5 columns as ‘employee_id’,’employee_name’,’salary’,’department’ and ‘commission’.