DROP SCHEMA (Transact-SQL)

**APPLIES TO:** ![yes](media/yes.png)SQL Server (starting with 2008) ![yes](media/yes.png)Azure SQL Database ![yes](media/yes.png)Azure SQL Data Warehouse ![yes](media/yes.png)Parallel Data Warehouse

Removes a schema from the database.

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

-- Syntax for SQL Server and Azure SQL Database  
  
DROP SCHEMA  [ IF EXISTS ] schema_name

-- Syntax for Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Parallel Data Warehouse  
  
DROP SCHEMA schema_name

Arguments

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

Conditionally drops the schema only if it already exists.

schema_name
Is the name by which the schema is known within the database.

Remarks

The schema that is being dropped must not contain any objects. If the schema contains objects, the DROP statement fails.

Information about schemas is visible in the sys.schemas catalog view.

Caution Beginning with SQL Server 2005, the behavior of schemas changed. As a result, code that assumes that schemas are equivalent to database users may no longer return correct results. Old catalog views, including sysobjects, should not be used in a database in which any of the following DDL statements have ever been used: CREATE SCHEMA, ALTER SCHEMA, DROP SCHEMA, CREATE USER, ALTER USER, DROP USER, CREATE ROLE, ALTER ROLE, DROP ROLE, CREATE APPROLE, ALTER APPROLE, DROP APPROLE, ALTER AUTHORIZATION. In such databases you must instead use the new catalog views. The new catalog views take into account the separation of principals and schemas that was introduced in SQL Server 2005. For more information about catalog views, see [Catalog Views (Transact-SQL)](../relational-databases/system-catalog-views/catalog-views-transact-sql.md).

Permissions

Requires CONTROL permission on the schema or ALTER ANY SCHEMA permission on the database.

Examples

The following example starts with a single CREATE SCHEMA statement. The statement creates the schema Sprockets that is owned by Krishna and a table Sprockets.NineProngs, and then grants SELECT permission to Anibal and denies SELECT permission to Hung-Fu.

CREATE SCHEMA Sprockets AUTHORIZATION Krishna   
    CREATE TABLE NineProngs (source int, cost int, partnumber int)  
    GRANT SELECT TO Anibal   
    DENY SELECT TO Hung-Fu;  
GO

The following statements drop the schema. Note that you must first drop the table that is contained by the schema.