SQL - DROP or DELETE Table

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The SQL DROP TABLE statement is used to remove a table definition and all the data, indexes, triggers, constraints and permission specifications for that table.

NOTE − You should be very careful while using this command because once a table is deleted then all the information available in that table will also be lost forever.

Syntax

The basic syntax of this DROP TABLE statement is as follows −

DROP TABLE table_name;

Example

Let us first verify the CUSTOMERS table and then we will delete it from the database as shown below −

SQL> DESC CUSTOMERS;
+---------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field   | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+---------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| ID      | int(11)       | NO   | PRI |         |       |
| NAME    | varchar(20)   | NO   |     |         |       |
| AGE     | int(11)       | NO   |     |         |       |
| ADDRESS | char(25)      | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
| SALARY  | decimal(18,2) | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
+---------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

This means that the CUSTOMERS table is available in the database, so let us now drop it as shown below.

SQL> DROP TABLE CUSTOMERS;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

Now, if you would try the DESC command, then you will get the following error −

SQL> DESC CUSTOMERS;
ERROR 1146 (42S02): Table 'TEST.CUSTOMERS' doesn't exist

Here, TEST is the database name which we are using for our examples.

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