MySQL DROP TABLE Keyword

The MySQL 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 MySQL 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 description of the table can be checked using DESC command as shown below:

DESC Employee;

This will produce the result as shown below:

To delete this table, the following statement can be used:

DROP TABLE Employee;

After dropping the table, the DESC command will throw following error:

DESC Employee;	
Result: Table 'testDB.Employee' doesn't exist

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