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DROP CATALOG

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Applies to: check marked yes Databricks SQL check marked yes Databricks Runtime 10.4 LTS and above check marked yes Unity Catalog only

Drops a catalog. An exception is thrown if the catalog does not exist in the metastore. To drop a catalog you must be its owner.

Syntax

DROP CATALOG [ IF EXISTS ] catalog_name [ RESTRICT | CASCADE ]

Parameters

  • IF EXISTS

    If specified, no exception is thrown when the catalog does not exist.

  • catalog_name:

    The name of an existing catalog in the metastore. If the name does not exist, an exception is thrown.

  • RESTRICT

    If specified, restricts dropping a non-empty catalog. Enabled by default.

  • CASCADE

    If specified, drops all of the associated databases (schemas) and the objects within them, recursively. In Unity Catalog, dropping a catalog using CASCADE soft-deletes tables: managed table files will be cleaned up after 30 days, but external files are not deleted.

Examples

-- Create a `vaccine` catalog
> CREATE CATALOG vaccine COMMENT 'This catalog is used to maintain information about vaccines';

-- Drop the catalog and its schemas
> DROP CATALOG vaccine CASCADE;

-- Drop the catalog using IF EXISTS and only if it is empty.
> DROP CATALOG IF EXISTS vaccine RESTRICT;