Removes a database.

Synopsis

DROP DATABASE [IF EXISTS] <name>

Description

DROP DATABASE drops a database. It removes the catalog entries for the database and deletes the directory containing the data. It can only be run by the database owner. Also, it cannot be run while you or anyone else are connected to the target database. (Connect to postgres or any other database to issue this command.)

Warning: DROP DATABASE cannot be undone. Use it with care!

Parameters

IF EXISTS

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

name

The name of the database to remove.

Notes

DROP DATABASE cannot be run inside a transaction block.

This command cannot be run while connected to the target database. Thus, it might be more convenient to use the program dropdb instead, which is a wrapper around this command.

Examples

Drop the database named testdb:

DROP DATABASE testdb;

Compatibility

There is no DROP DATABASE statement in the SQL standard.

See Also

ALTER DATABASE, CREATE DATABASE

Parent topic: SQL Commands