CREATE EVENT [IF NOT EXISTS] event_name
    ON SCHEDULE schedule
    [ON COMPLETION [NOT] PRESERVE]
    [ENABLE | DISABLE]
    [COMMENT 'comment']
    DO sql_statement;

schedule:
    AT timestamp [+ INTERVAL interval]
  | EVERY interval [STARTS timestamp] [ENDS timestamp]

interval:
    quantity {YEAR | QUARTER | MONTH | DAY | HOUR | MINUTE |
              WEEK | SECOND | YEAR_MONTH | DAY_HOUR | DAY_MINUTE |
              DAY_SECOND | HOUR_MINUTE | HOUR_SECOND | MINUTE_SECOND}

This statement creates and schedules a new event. The minimum requirements for a valid CREATE EVENT statement are as follows:

This is an example of a minimal CREATE EVENT statement:

CREATE EVENT myevent
    ON SCHEDULE AT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP + INTERVAL 1 HOUR
    DO
      UPDATE myschema.mytable SET mycol = mycol + 1;

The previous statement creates an event named myevent. This event executes once — one hour following its creation — by running an SQL statement that increments the value of the myschema.mytable table's mycol column by 1.

The event_name must be a valid MySQL identifier with a maximum length of 64 characters. It may be delimited using back ticks, and may be qualified with the name of a database schema. An event is associated with both a MySQL user (the definer) and a schema, and its name must be unique among all events created by that user within that schema. In general, the rules governing event names are the same as those for names of stored routines. See Section 9.2, “Database, Table, Index, Column, and Alias Names”.

If no schema is indicated as part of event_name, then the default (current) schema is assumed. The definer is always the current MySQL user. It is possible for two different users to create different events having the same name on the same database schema. For example, the users jon@ghidora and stefan@athena may each create an event named myevent on the database schema named myschema. These are entirely different events.

Note: MySQL uses case-insensitive comparisons when checking for the uniqueness of event names. This means that, for example, you cannot have two events named myevent and MyEvent created by the same MySQL user in the same database schema.

IF NOT EXISTS functions in the much the same fashion with CREATE EVENT as it does when used with a CREATE TABLE statement; if an event named event_name already exists in the same schema, no action is taken, and no error results. (However, a warning is generated.)

The ON SCHEDULE clause determines when, how often, and for how long the sql_statement defined for the event repeats. This clause takes one of two forms:

Normally, once an event has expired, it is immediately dropped. You can override this behavior by specifying ON COMPLETION PRESERVE. Using ON COMPLETION NOT PRESERVE merely makes the default non-persistent behavior explicit.

You can create an event but keep it from being active using the DISABLE keyword. Alternatively, you may use ENABLE to make explicit the default status, which is active. This is most useful in conjunction with ALTER EVENT (see Section 21.2.2, “ALTER EVENT Syntax”).

You may supply a comment for an event using a COMMENT clause. comment may be any string of up to 64 characters that you wish to use for describing the event. The comment text, being a string literal, must be surrounded by quotation marks.

The DO clause specifies an action carried by the event, and consists of an SQL statement. Nearly any valid MySQL statement which can be used in a stored routine can also be used as the action statement for a scheduled event. (See Section I.1, “Restrictions on Stored Routines and Triggers”.) For example, the following event e_hourly deletes all rows from the sessions table once per hour, where this table is part of the site_activity schema:

CREATE EVENT e_hourly
    EVERY 1 HOUR
    COMMENT 'Clears out sessions table each hour.'
    DO
      DELETE FROM site_activity.sessions;

Note: The SHOW statement and SELECT statements that merely return a result set have no effect when used in an event; the output from these is not sent to the MySQL Monitor, nor is it stored anywhere. However, you can use statements such as SELECT INTO and INSERT ... SELECT that store a result. (See the next example in this section for an instance of the latter.)

Note: Any reference to a table in the DO clause must be qualified with the name of the schema in which the table occurs.

As with stored routines, you can use multiple statements in the DO clause by bracketing them with the BEGIN and END keywords, as shown here:

DELIMITER |

CREATE EVENT e_daily
    EVERY 1 DAY
    COMMENT 'Saves total number of sessions then clears the table each day.'
    DO
      BEGIN
        INSERT INTO site_activity.totals (when, total)
          SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, COUNT(*) 
            FROM site_activity.sessions;
        DELETE FROM site_activity.sessions;
      END |

DELIMITER ;

Note the use of the DELIMITER statement to change the statement delimiter, as with stored routines. See Section 19.2.1, “CREATE PROCEDURE and CREATE FUNCTION Syntax”.

More complex compound statements, such as those used in stored routines, are possible in an event. This example uses local variables, an error handler, and a flow control construct:

DELIMITER |

CREATE EVENT e
    ON SCHEDULE EVERY 5 SECOND
    DO
      BEGIN
        DECLARE v INTEGER;
        DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR SQLEXCEPTION BEGIN END;

        SET v = 0;

        WHILE v < 5 DO
          INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (0);
          UPDATE t2 SET s1 = s1 + 1;
          SET v = v + 1;
        END WHILE;
    END |

DELIMITER ;

There is no way to pass parameters directly to or from events; however, it is possible to invoke a stored routine with parameters:

CREATE EVENT e_call_myproc
    ON SCHEDULE AT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP + 1 DAY
    DO CALL myproc(5, 27); 

In addition, if the event's definer has the SUPER privilege, that event may read and write global variables. As granting this privilege entails a potential for abuse, extreme care must be taken in doing so.

Generally, any statements which are valid in stored routines may be used for action statements executed by events. For more information about statements allowable within stored routines, see Section 19.2, “Stored Procedure Syntax”. You can create an event as part of a stored routine, but an event cannot be created by another event.