Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to show databases in a PostgreSQL database server.

In MySQL, you can show all databases in the server using SHOW DATABASES statement.

PostgreSQL does not directly support the SHOW DATABASES statement but offers you something similar. PostgreSQL provides you with two ways to show databases in a PostgreSQL database server.

Listing databases in PostgreSQL using psql command

First, open the Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on Unix-like systems and connect to the PostgreSQL server:

psql -U postgres

This statement uses the postgres user to connect to the local PostgreSQL server. It’ll prompt you to enter a password.

Second, show all the databases in the current server using the \l command:

\l

It’ll show the following output:

List of databases
   Name    |  Owner   | Encoding | Locale Provider |          Collate           |           Ctype            | ICU Locale | ICU Rules |   Access privileges
-----------+----------+----------+-----------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+------------+-----------+-----------------------
 dvdrental | postgres | UTF8     | libc            | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 |            |           |
 postgres  | postgres | UTF8     | libc            | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 |            |           |
 template0 | postgres | UTF8     | libc            | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 |            |           | =c/postgres          +
           |          |          |                 |                            |                            |            |           | postgres=CTc/postgres
 template1 | postgres | UTF8     | libc            | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 |            |           | =c/postgres          +
           |          |          |                 |                            |                            |            |           | postgres=CTc/postgres
(4 rows)

To display more information on databases, you can use the \l+ command:

\l+

Listing databases in PostgreSQL using SELECT statement

The following statement retrieves the database names from the pg_database view:

SELECT datname FROM pg_database;

Output:

datname
-----------
 postgres
 dvdrental
 template1
 template0
(4 rows)

The query returns four databases in the current PostgreSQL server.

Summary

  • Use \l or \l+ in psql to show all databases in a PostgreSQL database server.
  • Use the SELECT statement to query data from the pg_database to retrieve all the database names in a PostgreSQL database server.