Postgresql Drop View

PostgreSQL views make it easy to save and run SQL queries repeatedly, without having to write the query again and again. However, if you don’t need a PostgreSQL view, you can drop it from your database. Here’s how to drop view in PostgreSQL, using PostgreSQL DROP VIEW statement.

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How to Drop View in PostgreSQL

Here are the steps to drop view in PostgreSQL using PostgreSQL DROP VIEW statement.

Here’s the syntax for DROP VIEW statement.

DROP VIEW [ IF EXISTS ] view_name;

In the above statement replace view_name with your view name.

If you drop view that doesn’t exist you will get an error. So you can optionally add IF EXISTS keyword to delete view only if it exists. Here’s an example

postgres=# drop view temp_view;
ERROR:  view "temp_view" does not exist
postgres=# drop view if exists temp_view;
NOTICE:  view "temp_view" does not exist, skipping
DROP VIEW

Bonus Read : How to List PostgreSQL Views

PostgreSQL DROP VIEW Example

Let’s say you have the following view

postgres=# create view sales_view as
           select * from sales;
CREATE VIEW
postgres=# select * from sales;
 order_date | sale
------------+------
 2020-04-01 |  210
 2020-04-02 |  125
 2020-04-03 |  150
 2020-04-04 |  230
 2020-04-05 |  200
 2020-04-10 |  220
 2020-04-06 |   25
 2020-04-07 |  215
 2020-04-08 |  300
 2020-04-09 |  250

Bonus Read : How to Get First Row Per Group in PostgreSQL

Here’s the SQL query to drop view in PostgreSQL.

postgres=# drop view if exists sales_view;
DROP VIEW
postgres=# select * from sales_view;
ERROR:  relation "sales_view" does not exist
LINE 1: select * from sales_view;

Bonus Read : How to Create View in PostgreSQL