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PostgreSQL 8.4.17 Documentation
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DROP TABLE

Name

DROP TABLE -- remove a table

Synopsis

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

Description

DROP TABLE removes tables from the database. Only its owner 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).
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.

Comments

2009-10-10 09:29:12.008182

This definitely should be in the FAQ - to drop all tables (or grant privileges on them, etc) whose name matches a regexp/LIKE expression, one could use a similar construct to that (thanks, RhodiumToad!):
<RhodiumToad> create function exec(text) returns void language plpgsql as $f$ begin execute $1; end; $f$;
<RhodiumToad> select exec('drop table ' || quote_ident(schemaname) || '.' || quote_ident(tablename) || ' cascade') from pg_tables where schemaname like '...' and tablename like '...';