Deleting Columns from Tables in PostgreSQL (DROP COLUMN)

Syntax

ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name [CASCADE | RESTRICT];

Explanation:

• table_name: The table you want to modify.
• column_name: The name of the column to delete.
• CASCADE: Automatically drop dependent objects (use carefully).
• RESTRICT: Prevent dropping if dependencies exist (default).

Suppose we have a table employees with these columns:

Example: Delete the phone column

ALTER TABLE employees
DROP COLUMN phone;

After this command, the employees table will look like this:

Note: The ALTER TABLE ... DROP COLUMN command does not produce output.

Reference: Official PostgreSQL Documentation: ALTER TABLE