SQL Server - DROP TABLE Keyword

The SQL Server (Transact-SQL) DROP TABLE keyword is used to delete a table from the database. It drops all the data, indexes, triggers, constraints and permission specifications for the specified table.

Syntax

The syntax of using DROP TABLE keyword in SQL Server (Transact-SQL) is given below:

DROP TABLE [IF EXISTS] table_name;

The IF EXISTS is an optional parameter that conditionally drops table only if it exists on the database. If a table is deleted which does not exist, it will raise an error.

Example:

Consider a database containing a table called Employee with the following records:

The table can be checked using EXEC sp_help command as shown below:

EXEC sp_help Employee;

This will produce the result as shown below:

To delete this table, the query is given below:

DROP TABLE Employee;

After dropping the table, the EXEC sp_help command will throw following error:

EXEC sp_help Employee;	
Result: The object 'Employee' does not exist in database 'testDB' or is invalid for this operation.

Here, testDB is the name of database which initially had Employee table.