42P06ERRORTier 2 — Caution✅ HIGH confidenceduplicate schema
Category: Syntax Error or Access Rule ViolationVersions: All Postgres versions
What this means
SQLSTATE 42P06 is raised when CREATE SCHEMA is called with a name that already exists and IF NOT EXISTS is not specified.
Why it happens
- 1CREATE SCHEMA specifying a schema name that already exists in the database
How to reproduce
Creating a schema that already exists.
trigger — this will ERROR
CREATE SCHEMA myschema; -- myschema already existsERROR: schema "myschema" already exists
Fix 1: Use CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS
In migration scripts that may run multiple times.
fix
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS myschema;Why this works
IF NOT EXISTS silently succeeds if the schema already exists, making the command idempotent.
Sources
📚 Official docs: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/errcodes-appendix.html
🔧 Source ref: Class 42 — Syntax Error or Access Rule Violation (Postgres-specific)
Confidence assessment
✅ HIGH confidence
Postgres-specific. Stable across all versions.
See also
🔗 Related errors
📄 Reference pages
CREATE SCHEMASchema Management
⚙️ This error reference was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Examples are provided to illustrate common scenarios and may not cover every case. Always test fixes in a development environment before applying to production. Spotted an error? Suggest a correction →