13.1.29 DROP TABLE Statement
DROP [TEMPORARY] TABLE [IF EXISTS]
tbl_name [, tbl_name] ...
[RESTRICT | CASCADE]
DROP TABLE
removes one or more tables. You must have the DROP
privilege for each table.
Be careful with this statement! For each table, it removes the table definition and all table data. If the table is partitioned, the statement removes the table definition, all its partitions, all data stored in those partitions, and all partition definitions associated with the dropped table.
Dropping a table also drops any triggers for the table.
DROP TABLE
causes an implicit commit, except when used with the TEMPORARY
keyword. See Section 13.3.3, “Statements That Cause an Implicit Commit”.
When a table is dropped, privileges granted specifically for the table are not automatically dropped. They must be dropped manually. See Section 13.7.1.4, “GRANT Statement”.
If any tables named in the argument list do not exist, DROP TABLE
behavior depends on whether the IF EXISTS
clause is given:
Without
IF EXISTS
, the statement drops all named tables that do exist, and returns an error indicating which nonexisting tables it was unable to drop.With
IF EXISTS
, no error occurs for nonexisting tables. The statement drops all named tables that do exist, and generates aNOTE
diagnostic for each nonexistent table. These notes can be displayed withSHOW WARNINGS
. See Section 13.7.5.40, “SHOW WARNINGS Statement”.
IF EXISTS
can also be useful for dropping tables in unusual circumstances under which there is an .frm
file but no table managed by the storage engine. (For example, if an abnormal server exit occurs after removal of the table from the storage engine but before .frm
file removal.)
The TEMPORARY
keyword has the following effects:
The statement drops only
TEMPORARY
tables.The statement does not cause an implicit commit.
No access rights are checked. A
TEMPORARY
table is visible only with the session that created it, so no check is necessary.
Including the TEMPORARY
keyword is a good way to prevent accidentally dropping non-TEMPORARY
tables.
The RESTRICT
and CASCADE
keywords do nothing. They are permitted to make porting easier from other database systems.
DROP TABLE
is not supported with all innodb_force_recovery
settings. See Section 14.22.2, “Forcing InnoDB Recovery”.