DROP TABLE

Function

DROP TABLE deletes a specified table.

Precautions

• Exercise caution when running the DROP TABLE statement. Ensure that the table can be deleted before running this statement. After you run the DROP TABLE statement to delete a table, data in the table cannot be restored.

• DROP TABLE forcibly deletes a specified table. After a table is deleted, any indexes that exist for the table will be deleted; any functions or stored procedures that use this table cannot be run. Deleting a partitioned table also deletes all partitions in the table.
• Only the table owner, schema owner, or a user granted with the DROP permission can run DROP TABLE on a table. A system administrator has this permission by default. To delete all the rows in a table but retain the table definition, use TRUNCATE or DELETE.

Syntax

1
2

DROP TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] 
    { [schema.]table_name } [, ...] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ];

Parameter Description

• IF EXISTS

  Sends a notice instead of an error if the specified table does not exist.

• schema

  Specifies the schema name.

• table_name

  Specifies the name of the table.

• CASCADE | RESTRICT
  • CASCADE: automatically deletes objects (such as views) that depend on the table to be deleted.
  • RESTRICT (default): refuses to delete the table if any objects depend on it. This is the default.

Example

Delete the warehouse_t1 table:

1

DROP TABLE tpcds.warehouse_t1;

Helpful Links

ALTER TABLE, 12.101-RENAME TABLE, and CREATE TABLE