NAME

       DROP_TABLE - remove a table

SYNOPSIS

       DROP TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] name [, ...] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

DESCRIPTION

       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.)

PARAMETERS

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

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

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

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

EXAMPLES

       To destroy two tables, films and distributors:

           DROP TABLE films, distributors;

COMPATIBILITY

       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.

SEE ALSO

       ALTER TABLE (ALTER_TABLE(7)), CREATE TABLE (CREATE_TABLE(7))