NOT EXISTS</literal></term>
      <listitem>
       <para>
        Do nothing (except issuing a notice) if a schema with the same name
        already exists.  <replaceable class="parameter">schema_element</replaceable>
        subcommands cannot be included when this option is used.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Notes</title>

  <para>
   To create a schema, the invoking user must have the
   <literal>CREATE</literal> privilege for the current database.
   (Of course, superusers bypass this check.)
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Examples</title>

  <para>
   Create a schema:
<programlisting>
CREATE SCHEMA myschema;
</programlisting>
  </para>

  <para>
   Create a schema for user <literal>joe</literal>; the schema will also be
   named <literal>joe</literal>:
<programlisting>
CREATE SCHEMA AUTHORIZATION joe;
</programlisting>
  </para>

  <para>
   Create a schema named <literal>test</literal> that will be owned by user
   <literal>joe</literal>, unless there already is a schema named <literal>test</literal>.
   (It does not matter whether <literal>joe</literal> owns the pre-existing schema.)
<programlisting>
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS test AUTHORIZATION joe;
</programlisting>
  </para>

  <para>
   Create a schema and create a table and view within it:
<programlisting>
CREATE SCHEMA hollywood
    CREATE TABLE films (title text, release date, awards text[])
    CREATE VIEW winners AS
        SELECT title, release FROM films WHERE awards IS NOT NULL;
</programlisting>
   Notice that the individual subcommands do not end with semicolons.
  </para>

  <para>
   The following is an equivalent way of accomplishing the same result:
<programlisting>
CREATE SCHEMA hollywood;
CREATE TABLE hollywood.films (title text, release date, awards text[]);
CREATE VIEW hollywood.winners AS
    SELECT title, release FROM hollywood.films WHERE awards IS NOT NULL;
</programlisting></para>

 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Compatibility</title>

  <para>
   The SQL standard allows a <literal>DEFAULT CHARACTER SET</literal> clause
   in <command>CREATE SCHEMA</command>, as well as more subcommand
   types than are presently accepted by
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
  </para>

  <para>
   The SQL standard specifies that the subcommands in <command>CREATE
   SCHEMA</command> can appear in any order.  The present
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> implementation does not
   handle all cases of forward references in subcommands; it might
   sometimes be necessary to reorder the subcommands in order to avoid
   forward references.
  </para>

  <para>
   According to the SQL standard, the owner of a schema always owns
   all objects within it.  <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
   allows schemas to contain objects owned by users other than the
   schema owner.  This can happen only if the schema owner grants the
   <literal>CREATE</literal> privilege on their schema to someone else, or a
   superuser chooses to create objects in it.
  </para>

  <para>
   The <literal>IF NOT EXISTS</literal> option is a
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> extension.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>See Also</title>

  <simplelist type="inline">
   <member><xref linkend="sql-alterschema"/></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-dropschema"/></member>
 </simplelist>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>