Python PostgreSQL - Drop Table

Quiz

You can drop a table from PostgreSQL database using the DROP TABLE statement.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of the DROP TABLE statement in PostgreSQL −

DROP TABLE table_name;

Example

Assume we have created two tables with name CRICKETERS and EMPLOYEES using the following queries −

postgres=# CREATE TABLE CRICKETERS (
   First_Name VARCHAR(255), Last_Name VARCHAR(255), Age int, 
   Place_Of_Birth VARCHAR(255), Country VARCHAR(255)
);
CREATE TABLE
postgres=#
postgres=# CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE(
   FIRST_NAME CHAR(20) NOT NULL, LAST_NAME CHAR(20), AGE INT, 
   SEX CHAR(1), INCOME FLOAT
);
CREATE TABLE
postgres=#

Now if you verify the list of tables using the \dt command, you can see the above created tables as −

postgres=# \dt;
List of relations
Schema  | Name       | Type  | Owner
--------+------------+-------+----------
public  | cricketers | table | postgres
public  | employee   | table | postgres
(2 rows)
postgres=#

Following statement deletes the table named Employee from the database −

postgres=# DROP table employee;
DROP TABLE

Since you have deleted the Employee table, if you retrieve the list of tables again, you can observe only one table in it.

postgres=# \dt;
List of relations
Schema  | Name       | Type  | Owner
--------+------------+-------+----------
public  | cricketers | table | postgres
(1 row)
postgres=#

If you try to delete the Employee table again, since you have already deleted it, you will get an error saying table does not exist as shown below −

postgres=# DROP table employee;
ERROR: table "employee" does not exist
postgres=#

To resolve this, you can use the IF EXISTS clause along with the DELTE statement. This removes the table if it exists else skips the DLETE operation.

postgres=# DROP table IF EXISTS employee;
NOTICE: table "employee" does not exist, skipping
DROP TABLE
postgres=#

Example - Removing an entire table using Python

You can drop a table whenever you need to, using the DROP statement. But you need to be very careful while deleting any existing table because the data lost will not be recovered after deleting a table.

main.py

import psycopg2

#establishing the connection
conn = psycopg2.connect(
   database="mydb", user='postgres', password='password', host='127.0.0.1', port= '5432'
)

#Setting auto commit false
conn.autocommit = True

#Creating a cursor object using the cursor() method
cursor = conn.cursor()

#Dropping EMPLOYEE table if already exists
cursor.execute("DROP TABLE employee")
print("Table dropped... ")

#Commit your changes in the database
conn.commit()

#Closing the connection
conn.close()

Output

Table dropped...

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