13.1.28. `DROP TABLE` Syntax

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. All table data and the table definition are removed, so be careful with this statement! If any of the tables named in the argument list do not exist, MySQL returns an error indicating by name which nonexisting tables it was unable to drop, but it also drops all of the tables in the list that do exist.

Important

When a table is dropped, user privileges on the table are not automatically dropped. See Section 13.7.1.4, "GRANT Syntax".

Note that for a partitioned table, DROP TABLE permanently removes the table definition, all of its partitions, and all of the data which was stored in those partitions. It also removes the partitioning definition (.par) file associated with the dropped table.

Use IF EXISTS to prevent an error from occurring for tables that do not exist. A NOTE is generated for each nonexistent table when using IF EXISTS. See Section 13.7.5.41, "SHOW WARNINGS Syntax".

RESTRICT and CASCADE are permitted to make porting easier. In MySQL 5.6, they do nothing.

Note

DROP TABLE automatically commits the current active transaction, unless you use the TEMPORARY keyword.

The TEMPORARY keyword has the following effects:

The statement drops only TEMPORARY tables.
The statement does not end an ongoing transaction.
No access rights are checked. (A TEMPORARY table is visible only to the session that created it, so no check is necessary.)

Using TEMPORARY is a good way to ensure that you do not accidentally drop a non-TEMPORARY table.

13.1.28. DROP TABLE Syntax

13.1.28. `DROP TABLE` Syntax