Correct way to drop a table in SQL Server

Question

What is the best way to drop a table? The code I have does it two different ways. It will be dropped every week when I do a bulk insert. Thanks.

Like this?

IF EXISTS (SELECT * 
           FROM DBO.SYSOBJECTS
           WHERE ID = OBJECT_ID(N'[DBO].[ZIP]') AND OBJECTPROPERTY(ID, N'IsUserTable') = 1) 
    DROP TABLE [DBO].[ZIP]

Or this?

DROP TABLE DEID.DBO.ZIP

`DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.YourTable` seems like the easiest and safest way to go — marc_s, Jul 08 '20 at 18:08

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 08 '20 at 18:16

1

The second method will throw an error if the table doesn't exist, or if other database objects depend on it. The first one will not throw an error if the table doesn't exist, but it will still throw an error if other database objects depend on it.

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answered Jul 08 '20 at 18:16

Ale Gu

146
9

Thanks. Should I just use DROP TABLE IF EXISTS DEID.DBO.ZIP instead of the where statement? – sm86 Jul 08 '20 at 18:20

Correct way to drop a table in SQL Server

1 Answers1