NAME

       DROP_OPERATOR_CLASS - remove an operator class

SYNOPSIS

       DROP OPERATOR CLASS [ IF EXISTS ] name USING index_method [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

DESCRIPTION

       DROP OPERATOR CLASS drops an existing operator class. To execute this command you must be
       the owner of the operator class.

       DROP OPERATOR CLASS does not drop any of the operators or functions referenced by the
       class. If there are any indexes depending on the operator class, you will need to specify
       CASCADE for the drop to complete.

PARAMETERS

       IF EXISTS
           Do not throw an error if the operator class does not exist. A notice is issued in this
           case.

       name
           The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing operator class.

       index_method
           The name of the index access method the operator class is for.

       CASCADE
           Automatically drop objects that depend on the operator class (such as indexes), and in
           turn all objects that depend on those objects (see Section 5.15).

       RESTRICT
           Refuse to drop the operator class if any objects depend on it. This is the default.

NOTES

       DROP OPERATOR CLASS will not drop the operator family containing the class, even if there
       is nothing else left in the family (in particular, in the case where the family was
       implicitly created by CREATE OPERATOR CLASS). An empty operator family is harmless, but
       for the sake of tidiness you might wish to remove the family with DROP OPERATOR FAMILY; or
       perhaps better, use DROP OPERATOR FAMILY in the first place.

EXAMPLES

       Remove the B-tree operator class widget_ops:

           DROP OPERATOR CLASS widget_ops USING btree;

       This command will not succeed if there are any existing indexes that use the operator
       class. Add CASCADE to drop such indexes along with the operator class.

COMPATIBILITY

       There is no DROP OPERATOR CLASS statement in the SQL standard.

SEE ALSO

       ALTER OPERATOR CLASS (ALTER_OPERATOR_CLASS(7)), CREATE OPERATOR CLASS
       (CREATE_OPERATOR_CLASS(7)), DROP OPERATOR FAMILY (DROP_OPERATOR_FAMILY(7))