SQL - DROP TABLE Statement

Use the DROP TABLE statement to delete a table with data from the database.

Syntax:

DROP TABLE table_name

The following command will delete the Employee table in the SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL database.

SQL Script: Delete a Table

DROP TABLE Employee;

DROP Table with Cascade Constraints in Oracle

If the Employee table has some primary key, which is referred in other child tables, then first we have to drop referential constraints from the child table and then you can drop the parent table.

To drop the parent table along with the referential integrity constraint, you can use the DROP TABLE command with CASCADE CONSTRAINTS in Oracle, as shown below.

SQL Script: Cascade Constraints in Oracle

DROP TABLE Employee CASCADE CONSTRAINTS;

DROP Table with Purge Option in Oracle

If we use DROP TABLE without the PURGE option, it moves the table and its dependent objects to recycle bin, and the space occupied by them will not be freed. If we specify the PURGE option while dropping a table, it will a drop table along with its dependent objects and free the space.

SQL Script: Purge in Oracle

DROP TABLE Employee PURGE;