DROP DATABASE
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.)
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.