You may have an Administrator that will create your database for you, but if not, creating a database is a simple process.

Before creating a database, you will want to check through any existing databases in order to confirm that your database does not already exist.

mysql> SHOW DATABASES;

This command will print out an alphabetical list of the databases that you have access to. It might look something like this:

mysql> SHOW DATABASES;
+----------+
| Database |
+----------+
| pets     |
| test     |
+----------+


And it might not look something like this, because you have not yet created the "pets" database. Let's do that now.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE pets;

Note: Database names are case-sensitive!

Now that your database is created, you have to select it for use. How, you might ask? I'm glad you asked!

mysql> USE pets;

As soon as you see the message "Database changed", you know you're on the right track!

Alternately, you can skip the "USE database;" step by adding the database name when connecting to MYSQL. Example:

mysql> mysql -h host -u username -p pets

After logging in, if at any time you forget what database you are using, simply type in "SELECT database();" and you will be told.

And now you're all set and ready to go!