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Delete a Database

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Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance

This article describes how to delete a user-defined database in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio or Transact-SQL.

Prerequisites

  • Delete any database snapshots that exist on the database. For more information, see Drop a Database Snapshot (Transact-SQL).

  • If the database is involved in log shipping, remove log shipping.

  • If the database is published for transactional replication, or published or subscribed to merge replication, remove replication from the database.

Warning

Consider taking a full backup of the database before dropping it. A deleted database can be re-created only by restoring a full backup. For more information, see Quickstart: Backup and restore a SQL Server database on-premises.

Security

Permissions

To execute DROP DATABASE, at a minimum, a user must have CONTROL permission on the database.

Using Azure Data Studio (preview)

To delete a database

  1. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine, and then expand that instance.

  2. Expand Databases, right-click the database to delete, and then select Delete.

  3. To confirm you want to delete the database, select Yes.

Using SQL Server Management Studio

To delete a database

  1. In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine, and then expand that instance.

  2. Expand Databases, right-click the database to delete, and then select Delete.

  3. Confirm the correct database is selected, and then select OK.

Using Transact-SQL

For more information, see DROP DATABASE (Transact-SQL).

To delete a database

  1. Connect to the Database Engine.

  2. From the Standard bar, select New Query.

  3. Copy and paste the following example into the query window and select Execute. This example removes the Sales and NewSales databases.

SQL 
USE master ;  
GO  
DROP DATABASE Sales, NewSales ;  
GO

Follow Up: After deleting a database

Back up the master database. If master must be restored, any database that has been deleted since the last backup of master will still have references in the system catalog views and may cause error messages to be raised.

Limitations and Restrictions

Next steps