The statement is irreversible. The SQL DROP TABLE command drops the table and all the relationships related to the tables such as all the constraints or triggers associated with the table will be automatically dropped. Follow edited Feb 22 '20 at 1:44. Pinal Dave. You have to either drop the child tables before removing the parent table, or remove foreign key constraints. ALTER TABLE [dbo]. SQL Server DROP TABLE examples. Oracle provides no direct way to drop multiple tables at once. The basic syntax of the SQL Server DROP TABLE syntax is as follows: DROP TABLE [IF EXISTS] [database_name.][schema_name. It removes the table and its data and indexes associated with it. Thus, you can restore the table only by restoring the backup. Let's see the syntax to drop the table from the database. When a table is dropped all the references to the table will not be valid. SET @SQL = ‘DROP TABLE dbo.’ + QUOTENAME(@Name) EXEC sp_executesql @SQL FETCH NEXT FROM curTables INTO @Name END CLOSE curTables DEALLOCATE curTables GO. DROP [TEMPORARY] TABLE [IF EXISTS] TableName. Drop Tables In SQL Server. The following illustrates the syntax of the DROP TABLE statement. Older versions of SQL Server does not have DIY or DROP IF EXISTS functionality. BEGIN IF OBJECT_ID(‘tempdb..#tempcommands’) IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #tempcommands; CREATE TABLE #tempcommands (xCommand varchar(500)); EXEC … To remove multiple indexes from one or more tables at the same time, you specify a comma-separated list of index names with the corresponding table names after the DROP INDEX clause as shown in the following query: DROP INDEX [IF EXISTS] index_name1 ON table_name1, index_name2 ON table… A table which has a FOREIGN KEY and referenced by another table can not be dropped and if required to drop, the foreign key constraint or the referencing table should be dropped first. The following statement drops the cars table using the PURGE clause: DROP TABLE cars purge; Drop multiple tables at once . In case of an external table, only the associated metadata information is removed from the metastore database. It ensures that you do not accidentally remove non-temporary tables. This is an expensive operation. [TemporalTest] SET ( SYSTEM_VERSIONING = OFF) GO DROP TABLE [dbo]. In SQL Server, DROP TABLE requires ALTER permission in the schema to which the table belongs; MySQL requires the DROP privilege; Oracle the requires the DROP ANY TABLE privilege. Oracle DROP TABLE PURGE example. Improve this answer. SQL allows you to specify the drop behavior. To do this, specify either: CASCADE or RESTRICT. Deleting all of the records in the table leaves the table including column and constraint information. So while issuing this statement you should be very careful as all the information available to the table will be lost forever. good day ,sir g, this query is not working on oracle 11g server,please tell me what should we do in this problem. We cannot drop the table directly in this case. This is very important to know that once a table is deleted all the information available in the table is lost forever, so we have to be very careful when using this command. So it’s a more radical move. To delete a table, we use the DROP TABLE statement. Specify the name of the table that you want to delete. An exception is thrown if the table does not exist. Code. Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql) The DROP TABLE statement removes a table and its data permanently from the database. Let’s see some examples of using the SQL Server DROP TABLE statement. Reply . Because it uses the IF EXISTS … It means that you’ll delete its structure, the previously defined column names, the data types you set — and of course the data in it. A better option is to set the column unused: IF EXISTS. Callum Watkins. To drop indexes associated with these constraints, you use the ALTER TABLE DROP CONSTRAINT statement. DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.Scores Reference: DROP IF EXISTS - new thing in SQL Server 2016. For example – you may have millions of tables in sys.tables or millions of indexes you need to drop. The optional IF EXISTS clause instructs the SQL Server to check if the table exists before deleting. So, we have to use the old technique of checking for the object using OBJECT_ID. Drop a Table. In MySQL, you can also remove multiple tables using a single DROP TABLE statement, each table is separated by a comma (,)..