<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >DROP TABLE</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REV="MADE" HREF="mailto:pgsql-docs@postgresql.org"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="SQL Commands" HREF="sql-commands.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="DROP SEQUENCE" HREF="sql-dropsequence.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="DROP TABLESPACE" HREF="sql-droptablespace.html"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="stylesheet.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><META NAME="creation" CONTENT="2007-02-02T03:57:22"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="REFENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="5" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-dropsequence.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-dropsequence.html" >Fast Backward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-droptablespace.html" >Fast Forward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-droptablespace.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="SQL-DROPTABLE" ></A >DROP TABLE</H1 ><DIV CLASS="REFNAMEDIV" ><A NAME="AEN42633" ></A ><H2 >Name</H2 >DROP TABLE -- remove a table</DIV ><A NAME="AEN42636" ></A ><DIV CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV" ><A NAME="AEN42638" ></A ><H2 >Synopsis</H2 ><PRE CLASS="SYNOPSIS" >DROP TABLE <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT > [, ...] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]</PRE ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN42641" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 ><P > <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >DROP TABLE</TT > removes tables from the database. Only its owner may destroy a table. To empty a table of rows, without destroying the table, use <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >DELETE</TT >. </P ><P > <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >DROP TABLE</TT > 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, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >CASCADE</TT > must be specified. (<TT CLASS="LITERAL" >CASCADE</TT > 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.) </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN42650" ></A ><H2 >Parameters</H2 ><P ></P ><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >name</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to drop. </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="LITERAL" >CASCADE</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Automatically drop objects that depend on the table (such as views). </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="LITERAL" >RESTRICT</TT ></DT ><DD ><P > Refuse to drop the table if any objects depend on it. This is the default. </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN42668" ></A ><H2 >Examples</H2 ><P > To destroy two tables, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >films</TT > and <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >distributors</TT >: </P><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >DROP TABLE films, distributors;</PRE ><P> </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN42674" ></A ><H2 >Compatibility</H2 ><P > This command conforms to the SQL standard, except that the standard only allows one table to be dropped per command. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN42677" ></A ><H2 >See Also</H2 ><A HREF="sql-altertable.html" ><I >ALTER TABLE</I ></A >, <A HREF="sql-createtable.html" ><I >CREATE TABLE</I ></A ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-dropsequence.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-droptablespace.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >DROP SEQUENCE</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="sql-commands.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >DROP TABLESPACE</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >