NAME

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

name

CASCADE

RESTRICT

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.

SEE ALSO

ALTER TABLE (ALTER_TABLE(7)), CREATE TABLE (CREATE_TABLE(7))