DROP TABLE — remove a table
DROP TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] name [, ...] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
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.)
IF EXISTSDo not throw an error if the table does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.
nameThe name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to drop.
CASCADEAutomatically drop objects that depend on the table (such as views), and in turn all objects that depend on those objects (see Section 5.14).
RESTRICTRefuse to drop the table if any objects depend on it. This is the default.
To destroy two tables, films and
distributors:
DROP TABLE films, distributors;
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.