In SQL, DROP TABLE
is used to delete the tables in our database.
Example
-- delete Shippings table
DROP TABLE Shippings;
Here, the SQL command will delete a table named Shippings.
Also, make sure you have admin or DROP permission to run this command.
DROP TABLE Syntax
The syntax of the SQL DROP TABLE
statement is:
DROP TABLE table_name;
Here, table_name
is the name of the table to be removed.
Note: When we delete a database table, all records within the table are also deleted.
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS
If a table does not exist, dropping it will throw an error. To fix this issue, we can add the optional IF EXISTS
command while dropping a table. For example,
-- delete Orders table if it exists
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Orders;
Here, the SQL command will only drop a table if there exists one with the name Orders.
Recommended Readings: