Quickly creating a new SQL Server database with SQLCMD

Today's post is a quick tip about how to use SQLCMD to quickly create a new SQL Server database from the command line.

Usually, I have SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) open and connected, so creating a new database is just a few clicks. But if you have your hands on the keyboard and focus on the command prompt/terminal, you can run the following:

sqlcmd -S localhost -E -Q "CREATE DATABASE MyNewDatabase;"

If you are not sure if the database exists or not (and want the command to succeed), you can add a little IF statement at the beginning:

sqlcmd -S localhost -E -Q "IF DB_ID('MyNewDatabase') IS NULL CREATE DATABASE MyNewDatabase;"

Note that if your server uses self-signed certificates, you can add the -C parameter to trust the certificate:

sqlcmd -S localhost -E -C -Q "IF DB_ID('MyNewDatabase') IS NULL CREATE DATABASE MyNewDatabase;"

Hope this helps!