DROP PROCEDURE (Transact-SQL)

Article
05/23/2023

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW) SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric

Removes one or more stored procedures or procedure groups from the current database in SQL Server.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

-- Syntax for SQL Server and Azure SQL Database  
  
DROP { PROC | PROCEDURE } [ IF EXISTS ] { [ schema_name. ] procedure } [ ,...n ]

-- Syntax for Azure Synapse Analytics and Parallel Data Warehouse and Microsoft Fabric
  
DROP { PROC | PROCEDURE } { [ schema_name. ] procedure_name }

Note

To view Transact-SQL syntax for SQL Server 2014 (12.x) and earlier versions, see Previous versions documentation.

Arguments

IF EXISTS
Applies to: SQL Server ( SQL Server 2016 (13.x) through current version).

Conditionally drops the procedure only if it already exists.

schema_name
The name of the schema to which the procedure belongs. A server name or database name cannot be specified.

procedure
The name of the stored procedure or stored procedure group to be removed. Individual procedures within a numbered procedure group cannot be dropped; the whole procedure group is dropped.

Best Practices

Before removing any stored procedure, check for dependent objects and modify these objects accordingly. Dropping a stored procedure can cause dependent objects and scripts to fail when these objects are not updated. For more information, see View the Dependencies of a Stored Procedure

Metadata

To display a list of existing procedures, query the sys.objects catalog view. To display the procedure definition, query the sys.sql_modules catalog view.

Security

Permissions

Requires CONTROL permission on the procedure, or ALTER permission on the schema to which the procedure belongs, or membership in the db_ddladmin fixed server role.

Examples

The following example removes the dbo.uspMyProc stored procedure in the current database.

DROP PROCEDURE dbo.uspMyProc;  
GO

The following example removes several stored procedures in the current database.

DROP PROCEDURE dbo.uspGetSalesbyMonth, dbo.uspUpdateSalesQuotes, dbo.uspGetSalesByYear;

The following example removes the dbo.uspMyProc stored procedure if it exists but does not cause an error if the procedure does not exist. This syntax is new in SQL Server 2016 (13.x).

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS dbo.uspMyProc;  
GO