hbase(main):004:0> exists 'test'
Table test does not exist
0 row(s) in 0.0980 seconds

hbase(main):005:0> create 'test','cf'

ERROR: Table already exists: test!

Here is some help for this command:
Create table; pass table name, a dictionary of specifications per
column family, and optionally a dictionary of table configuration.
Dictionaries are described below in the GENERAL NOTES section.
Examples:

hbase> create 't1', {NAME => 'f1', VERSIONS => 5}
hbase> create 't1', {NAME => 'f1'}, {NAME => 'f2'}, {NAME => 'f3'}
hbase> # The above in shorthand would be the following:
hbase> create 't1', 'f1', 'f2', 'f3'
hbase> create 't1', {NAME => 'f1', VERSIONS => 1, TTL => 2592000, BLOCKCACHE => true}
hbase> create 't1', 'f1', {SPLITS => ['10', '20', '30', '40']}
hbase> create 't1', 'f1', {SPLITS_FILE => 'splits.txt'}
hbase> # Optionally pre-split the table into NUMREGIONS, using
hbase> # SPLITALGO ("HexStringSplit", "UniformSplit" or classname)
hbase> create 't1', 'f1', {NUMREGIONS => 15, SPLITALGO => 'HexStringSplit'}