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up vote 122 down vote favorite
26

I am beginner to PostgreSQL.

I want to connect to another database from the query editor of Postgres - like the USE command of MySQL or MS SQL Server.

I found \c databasename by searching the Internet, but its runs only on psql. When I try it from the PostgreSQL query editor I get a syntax error.

I have to change the database by pgscripting. Does anyone know how to do it?

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up vote 121 down vote accepted

When you get a connection to PostgreSQL it is always to a particular database. To access a different database, you must get a new connection.

Using \c in psql closes the old connection and acquires a new one, using the specified database and/or credentials. You get a whole new back-end process and everything.

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Thanks kgrittn for your valuable guidance.Can you tell me how I can make new connection to database and close previous by using pgscript query? – Sameer Apr 27 '12 at 6:41
    
I'm not familiar with pgscript. If that's a language in which you write functions, the answer is that it can't be done. Maybe you should consider putting tables in different schemas instead of different databases? – kgrittn Apr 27 '12 at 12:40
1  
Thanks.can we write simple query to change database???How? – Sameer Apr 27 '12 at 13:39
1  
A query can't change the database in PostgreSQL. – kgrittn Apr 28 '12 at 1:04
6  
If I'm not mistaken, databases in MySQL are more akin to schemas in PostgreSQL -- you can switch between those, but DBs in PostgreSQL are a whole different ballgame. – mpen May 10 '12 at 3:40
up vote 75 down vote

You must specify the database to use on connect; if you want to use psql for your script, you can use "\c name_database" 

user_name=# CREATE DATABASE testdatabase; 
user_name=# \c testdatabase

At this point you might see the following output

You are now connected to database "testdatabase" as user "user_name".
testdatabase=#

Notice how the prompt changes. Cheers, have just been hustling looking for this too, too little information on postgreSQL compared to MySQL and the rest in my view.

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best explanation, thank you – Oleg Abrazhaev Feb 16 at 8:28

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