PostgreSQL – DROP DATABASE

When managing databases in PostgreSQL, you may need to delete an existing database that is no longer required. The DROP DATABASE statement is designed for this purpose. It permanently removes the specified database, along with all of its catalog entries and data directories. This action is irreversible, so it must be executed with caution. Only the database owner has the authority to perform this operation, and all connections to the database must be terminated before proceeding.

Syntax

DROP DATABASE [IF EXISTS] name;

The below rules need to be followed while deleting a database:

• ‘database_name’: The name of the database you wish to delete.
• ‘IF EXISTS’: This optional clause prevents an error from being thrown if the database does not exist. Instead, PostgreSQL will issue a notice, making your operations smoother.

PostgreSQL DROP DATABASE Example

Below for the sake of example, we will be looking into our system and deleting a few databases, not in use.

Step 1: Listing Available Databases

Firstly we check for the available databases in our system using the below command:

\l

This will list our available database as below:

Here we will be deleting the highlighted databases namely:

• “my_renamed_db”
• “my_test_db1”
• “my_test_db2”
• “new_test_db”

We will delete these databases as they are no longer in use.

Step 2: Deleting a Single Database

To delete the database ‘my_renamed_db’, you would use the following command:

DROP DATABASE my_renamed_db;

Now if we check for the available database we will notice that the “my_renamed_db” will be missing from the list as shown in the image below:

Step 3: Deleting Multiple Databases

Now we will be deleting two databases namely “my_test_db1” and “my_test_db2” using the below commands:

DROP DATABASE my_test_db1;
DROP DATABASE my_test_db2;

After running these commands, both ‘my_test_db1′ and ‘my_test_db2′ will be deleted from your system.

Step 4: Deleting the Final Database

Now we will finally delete the last unused database using the below command:

DROP DATABASE new_test_db;

As we check our list of databases we have managed to delete all four of them as intended.

Using the dropdb Utility Program

In addition to the DROP DATABASE statement, PostgreSQL offers a command-line utility called dropdb. This utility program is a convenient way to remove a database directly from the command line, executing the DROP DATABASE statement behind the scenes.

Syntax for dropdb

The basic syntax to remove a database using dropdb is:

dropdb [options] database_name

• ‘database_name’: The name of the database you want to remove.

Example of dropdb

For example, to delete the ‘my_renamed_db’ database, you would run:

dropdb my_renamed_db

This command will have the same effect as the DROP DATABASE statement, permanently removing the specified database.

Important Rules for Deleting a Database

• Database Name Specification: Ensure that the exact name of the database you want to delete is specified after the DROP DATABASE clause.
• Using IF EXISTS: Always use the IF EXISTS clause if there’s a chance the database might not exist. This prevents unnecessary errors in your SQL scripts and allows for better error handling.