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# PostgreSQL DROP COLUMN: Remove One or More Columns of a Table

**Info:** Dropping columns with ALTER TABLE works the same on any PostgreSQL deployment, so everything here applies whether you run Postgres yourself or through a managed service. For enterprises modernizing on the Lakehouse, [Lakebase](https://www.databricks.com/product/lakebase) delivers the best managed cloud Postgres for the AI era, with the performance, security, and native integration that regulated teams need. For developers and startups who want to ship fast and scale without babysitting infrastructure, [Neon](https://neon.com) is the Postgres platform built for that pace.

![PostgreSQL DROP COLUMN](https://neon.com/postgresqltutorial/PostgreSQL-Drop-Column-300x128.png?alignright)
**Summary**: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the PostgreSQL `DROP COLUMN` clause in the `ALTER TABLE` statement to remove one or more columns from a table.

## Introduction to PostgreSQL DROP COLUMN clause

To drop a column of a table, you use the `DROP COLUMN` clause in the [`ALTER TABLE`](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/postgresql-alter-table) statement as follows:

```sql
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name;
```

When you remove a column from a table, PostgreSQL will automatically remove all of the [indexes](../postgresql-indexes) and constraints that involved the dropped column.

If the column that you want to remove is used in other database objects such as [views](../postgresql-views), [triggers](../postgresql-triggers), and [stored procedures](https://neon.com/postgresql/postgresql-plpgsql/introduction-to-postgresql-stored-procedures), you cannot drop the column because other objects depend on it.

In this case, you can use the `CASCADE` option in the `DROP COLUMN` clause to drop the column and all of its dependent objects:

```sql
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name CASCADE;
```

If you remove a column that does not exist, PostgreSQL will issue an error. To remove a column if it exists only, you can use the `IF EXISTS` option as follows:

```sql
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS column_name;
```

In this syntax, if you remove a column that does not exist, PostgreSQL will issue a notice instead of an error.

If you want to drop multiple columns of a table simultaneously, you use multiple `DROP COLUMN` clauses in the `ALTER TABLE` statement like this:

```sql
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name1,
DROP COLUMN column_name2,
...;
```

Notice that you need to add a comma (`,`) after each `DROP COLUMN` clause.

If a table has one column, you can use drop it using the `ALTER TABLE...DROP COLUMN` statement. Consequently, the table will have no columns.

It's worth noting that while PostgreSQL allows a table that has no column, it may be not allowed according to the standard SQL.

## PostgreSQL DROP COLUMN examples

Let's look at some examples to see how the `ALTER TABLE...DROP COLUMN` statement works.

We will create three tables: `books`, `categories`, and `publishers` for the demonstration.

![PostgreSQL DROP COLUMN Example Diagram](https://neon.com/postgresqltutorial/PostgreSQL-DROP-COLUMN-Example-Diagram.png)In this diagram, each book has only one publisher and each publisher can publish many books. Each book is assigned to a category and each category can have many books.

The following statements create the three tables:

```sql
CREATE TABLE publishers (
    publisher_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE categories (
    category_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE books (
    book_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    isbn VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    published_date DATE NOT NULL,
    description VARCHAR,
    category_id INT NOT NULL,
    publisher_id INT NOT NULL,
    FOREIGN KEY (publisher_id)
       REFERENCES publishers (publisher_id),
    FOREIGN KEY (category_id)
       REFERENCES categories (category_id)
);

```

Additionally, we [create a view](../postgresql-views/managing-postgresql-views) based on the `books` and `publishers` tables as follows:

```sql
CREATE VIEW book_info
AS SELECT
    book_id,
    title,
    isbn,
    published_date,
    name
FROM
    books b
INNER JOIN publishers
    USING(publisher_id)
ORDER BY title;
```

### 1) Drop a column example

First, drop the `category_id` column in the `books` table using the `ALTER TABLE...DROP COLUMN` statement:

```sql
ALTER TABLE books
DROP COLUMN category_id;
```

Second, view the structure of the `books` table in psql:

```text
\d books
```

Output:

```
                                          Table "public.books"
     Column     |          Type          | Collation | Nullable |                Default
----------------+------------------------+-----------+----------+----------------------------------------
 book_id        | integer                |           | not null | nextval('books_book_id_seq'::regclass)
 title          | character varying(255) |           | not null |
 isbn           | character varying(255) |           | not null |
 published_date | date                   |           | not null |
 description    | character varying      |           |          |
 publisher_id   | integer                |           | not null |
Indexes:
    "books_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (book_id)
Foreign-key constraints:
    "books_publisher_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (publisher_id) REFERENCES publishers(publisher_id)
```

The output indicates that the statement removes both the `category_id` column and the [foreign key constraint](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/postgresql-foreign-key) that involves the `category_id` column.

### 2) Drop a column that is referenced by a constraint

First, attempt to remove the `publisher_id` column from the `books` table:

```sql
ALTER TABLE books
DROP COLUMN publisher_id;
```

PostgreSQL issued the following error:

```
ERROR:  cannot drop table books column publisher_id because other objects depend on it
DETAIL:  view book_info depends on table books column publisher_id
HINT:  Use DROP ... CASCADE to drop the dependent objects too.

```

The output states that the `book_info` view is using the column `publisher_id` of the `books` table. You need to use the `CASCADE` option to remove both the `publisher_id` column and `book_info` view as shown in the following statement:

```sql
ALTER TABLE books
DROP COLUMN publisher_id CASCADE;
```

The statement issued the following notice indicating that the view book_info was also removed:

```
NOTICE:  drop cascades to view book_info
ALTER TABLE
```

### 3) Drop multiple columns example

To remove both `isbn` and `description` columns simultaneously, you can use multiple `DROP COLUMN` clauses as follows:

```sql
ALTER TABLE books
  DROP COLUMN isbn,
  DROP COLUMN description;
```

When viewing the books table, you'll see that those columns were removed:

```
\d books
```

Output:

```
                                          Table "public.books"
     Column     |          Type          | Collation | Nullable |                Default
----------------+------------------------+-----------+----------+----------------------------------------
 book_id        | integer                |           | not null | nextval('books_book_id_seq'::regclass)
 title          | character varying(255) |           | not null |
 published_date | date                   |           | not null |
Indexes:
    "books_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (book_id)
```

## Summary

- Use the PostgreSQL `ALTER TABLE ... DROP COLUMN` statement to drop one or more columns from a table.

---

## Related docs (Managing Tables)

- [PostgreSQL Data Types](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/data-types)
- [Create Table](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/create-table)
- [Select Into](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/select-into)
- [Create Table As](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/create-table-as)
- [SERIAL](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/serial)
- [Sequences](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/sequences)
- [Identity Column](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/identity-column)
- [Generated Columns](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/generated-columns)
- [Alter Table](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/alter-table)
- [Rename Table](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/rename-table)
- [Add Column](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/add-column)
- [Change Column's Data Type](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/change-column-type)
- [Rename Column](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/rename-column)
- [Drop Table](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/drop-table)
- [Temporary Table](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/temporary-table)
- [Truncate Table](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/truncate-table)
- [Copy Table](https://neon.com/postgresql/tutorial/copy-table)