---
title: Creating Your First Hypertable | Tiger Data Docs
description: Hands-on guide to creating and configuring hypertables
---

**Tiger Data 101** → TimescaleDB | **Section:** Hypertables | **⏱ Time:** \~2 min

## Creating a hypertable from Scratch

The recommended approach is to use the modern `CREATE TABLE` syntax with the `tsdb.hypertable` option:

```
CREATE TABLE sensor_readings (
  time       TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL,
  device_id  TEXT NOT NULL,
  temperature FLOAT,
  humidity   FLOAT
) WITH (tsdb.hypertable, tsdb.partition_column = 'time');
```

Or, if you already have a regular table, convert it:

```
SELECT create_hypertable('sensor_readings', by_range('time'));
```

---

## Configuring chunk intervals

TimescaleDB automatically chooses chunk intervals (typically 7 days for new data), but you can customize:

```
ALTER TABLE sensor_readings SET (
  timescaledb.chunk_time_interval = INTERVAL '1 day'
);
```

**Guidelines:**

- **Smaller intervals (1 hour – 1 day)**: For high-cardinality or very high write volume
- **Medium intervals (1 week)**: Good default for most use cases
- **Larger intervals (1 month+)**: For lower cardinality or sparse data

---

→NEXT MODULE

[**Partitioning, Indexing & Optimization** — Discover advanced techniques for optimizing your hypertable layout.](/learn/tiger-data-academy/tiger-data-101/hypertables/partitioning-indexing-and-optimization/index.md)