DROP DATABASE

Name

DROP DATABASE -- remove a database

Synopsis

DROP DATABASE 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 executed by the database owner.

DROP DATABASE cannot be undone. Use it with care!

Parameters

name

The name of the database to remove.

Diagnostics

DROP DATABASE

This message is returned if the command was successful.

DROP DATABASE: cannot be executed on the currently open database

You cannot be connected to the database you are about to remove. Instead, connect to template1 or any other database and run this command again.

DROP DATABASE: may not be called in a transaction block

You must finish the transaction in progress before you can call this command.

Notes

This command cannot be executed 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.

Compatibility

The is no DROP DATABASE statement in the SQL standard.

See Also

CREATE DATABASE