Dropping multiple tables in SQL Server 2005

I'm currently working on a project that has a Cache database that stores query results, and so naturally there are times when I'm playing inside of Management Studio that I want to delete the cache. However, I don't want to drop the entire database (because then I'd have to re-run the create script), nor do I want to delete all the tables in it (there is one table that needs to remain).

In case it's of use to anyone, or I need to do this again, here's a snippet of T-SQL that will drop an arbitrary list of tables from a database.

 DECLARE @id varchar(255) 
DECLARE @dropCommand varchar(255) DECLARE tableCursor CURSOR FOR 
    SELECT name FROM sys.tables WHERE name <> 'CacheManager' OPEN tableCursor 
FETCH next FROM tableCursor INTO @id WHILE @@fetch_status=0 
BEGIN 
    SET @dropcommand = N'drop table ' + @id 
    EXECUTE(@dropcommand) 
    FETCH next FROM tableCursor INTO @id 
END CLOSE tableCursor 
DEALLOCATE tableCursor

I wish there was a 'Copy as HTML' function or something similar I could use to get the nicely formatted text from Management Studio into a blog posting.

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 28, 2008
  Thank you - this was exactly what I needed.  I actually needed to drop all the tables, but I didn't want to mess up the permissions or schema associated with the DB.  Worked great.
• Anonymous
  November 20, 2008
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  December 09, 2008
  I did a minor modification to the script. Running this script will give you ythe list of drop table statements, which can be reviewed/executed at one go.Note: this is for SQL2000DECLARE @id1 varchar(255),@dropCommand varchar(255)DECLARE tableCursor CURSOR FOR SELECT table_name FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERETABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE' and table_name like 'GPN%'OPEN tableCursor FETCH next FROM tableCursor INTO @id1 WHILE @@fetch_status=0BEGINprint 'drop table ' +@id1FETCH next FROM tableCursor INTO @id1ENDCLOSE tableCursorDEALLOCATE tableCursor