Terraform script destroying previously created ec2 before creating a new one - terraform-provider-aws

Question

I am new to Terraform and this is my first script trying it out
provider "aws" {
profile = "default"
region = "us-east-1"
}
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
ami = "ami-2757f631"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
}
I have the script above stored on my windows desktop in C:\TerraformScripts\First.tf
Now when I run it the first time, the script executes and creates a new instance for me. I wanted to run it the second time with just changing the name from example to example2. I assumed it would create a new instance with the same configuration since I changed the name against the resource setting. But it instead destroyed the instance I had created on the first run and then recreated it again. Why is this happening without my specifying destroy?
Apologies, if I may have missed out something in the documentation, but I couldn't see it when I looked.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Terraform is a declarative language, which means that the script you write is telling terraform the state you want to get to (then terraform works out how to get there). It's effectively like saying "I want you to make sure I have an aws_instance", rather than "I want you to create an aws_instance".
If I'm understanding correctly, you are probably aiming to do this:
provider "aws" {
profile = "default"
region = "us-east-1"
}
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
ami = "ami-2757f631"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
}
resource "aws_instance" "example2" {
ami = "ami-2757f631"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
}
If you run terraform apply now, you will have two EC2 instances regardless of how many were created by the script previously. That's because under the hood, terraform is tracking the resources it's created previously for that script in a state file, comparing them to the current script, then working out what actions to take to make them line up.
Alternatively, you could use the count parameter to get multiple copies of the same resource:
provider "aws" {
profile = "default"
region = "us-east-1"
}
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
count = 2
ami = "ami-2757f631"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
}