DROP TABLE v11

Name

DROP TABLE -- remove a table.

Synopsis

DROP TABLE <name> [CASCADE | RESTRICT | CASCADE CONSTRAINTS]

Description

DROP TABLE removes tables from the database. Only its owner may destroy a table. To empty a table of rows, without destroying the table, use DELETE. DROP TABLE always removes any indexes, rules, triggers, and constraints that exist for the target table.

Parameters

name

The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to drop.

• Include the RESTRICT keyword to specify that the server should refuse to drop the table if any objects depend on it. This is the default behavior; the DROP TABLE command will report an error if any objects depend on the table.

• Include the CASCADE clause to drop any objects that depend on the table.

• Include the CASCADE CONSTRAINTS clause to specify that Advanced Server should drop any dependent constraints (excluding other object types) on the specified table.

Examples

The following command drops a table named emp that has no dependencies:

DROP TABLE emp;

The outcome of a DROP TABLE command will vary depending on whether the table has any dependencies - you can control the outcome by specifying a drop behavior. For example, if you create two tables, orders and items, where the items table is dependent on the orders table:

CREATE TABLE orders
  (order_id int PRIMARY KEY, order_date date, …);
CREATE TABLE items
  (order_id REFERENCES orders, quantity int, …);

Advanced Server will perform one of the following actions when dropping the orders table, depending on the drop behavior that you specify:

• If you specify DROP TABLE orders RESTRICT, Advanced Server will report an error.
• If you specify DROP TABLE orders CASCADE, Advanced Server will drop the orders table and the items table.
• If you specify DROP TABLE orders CASCADE CONSTRAINTS, Advanced Server will drop the orders table and remove the foreign key specification from the items table, but not drop the items table.

See Also

CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE