22.3.3.1 Create, List, and Drop Collections

In MySQL Shell, you can create new collections, get a list of the existing collections in a schema, and remove an existing collection from a schema. Collection names are case-sensitive and each collection name must be unique.

Confirm the Schema

To show the value that is assigned to the schema variable, issue:

mysql-js> db

If the schema value is not Schema:world_x, then set the db variable by issuing:

mysql-js> \use world_x

Create a Collection

To create a new collection in an existing schema, use the db object's createCollection() method. The following example creates a collection called flags in the world_x schema.

mysql-js> db.createCollection("flags")

The method returns a collection object.

<Collection:flags>

List Collections

To display all collections in the world_x schema, use the db object's getCollections() method. Collections returned by the server you are currently connected to appear between brackets.

mysql-js> db.getCollections()
[
    <Collection:countryinfo>,
    <Collection:flags>
]

Drop a Collection

To drop an existing collection from a schema, use the db object's dropCollection() method. For example, to drop the flags collection from the current schema, issue:

mysql-js> db.dropCollection("flags")

The dropCollection() method is also used in MySQL Shell to drop a relational table from a schema.

Related Information

• See Collection Objects for more examples.