DROP TABLE
DROP TABLE — remove a table
Synopsis
DROP TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] name
[, ...] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
Description
DROP TABLE
removes tables from the database. Only the table owner, the schema owner, and superuser can drop a table. To empty a table of rows without destroying the table, use DELETE or TRUNCATE.
DROP TABLE
always removes any indexes, rules, triggers, and constraints that exist for the target table. However, to drop a table that is referenced by a view or a foreign-key constraint of another table, CASCADE
must be specified. (CASCADE
will remove a dependent view entirely, but in the foreign-key case it will only remove the foreign-key constraint, not the other table entirely.)
Parameters
IF EXISTS
Do not throw an error if the table does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.
name
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to drop.
CASCADE
Automatically drop objects that depend on the table (such as views).
RESTRICT
Refuse to drop the table if any objects depend on it. This is the default.
Examples
To destroy two tables, films
and distributors
:
DROP TABLE films, distributors;
Compatibility
This command conforms to the SQL standard, except that the standard only allows one table to be dropped per command, and apart from the IF EXISTS
option, which is a PostgreSQL extension.