Delete databases

Databases can be deleted by using the command DROP DATABASE. Note that all database aliases must be dropped before dropping a database.

Syntax

Command Syntax

DROP DATABASE

 
DROP [COMPOSITE] DATABASE name [IF EXISTS] [RESTRICT | CASCADE ALIAS[ES]] [{DUMP|DESTROY} [DATA]] [WAIT [n [SEC[OND[S]]]]|NOWAIT]

Examples

Delete a database

To delete the database customers, run the following command:

DROP DATABASE customers

Both standard databases and composite databases can be deleted using this command.

The DROP DATABASE command removes a database entirely. Therefore, it no longer shows up in the listing provided by the command SHOW DATABASES:

SHOW DATABASES YIELD name
Result
+---------------------+
| name                |
+---------------------+
| "movies"            |
| "neo4j"             |
| "system"            |
+---------------------+

Delete a database with IF EXISTS

The DROP DATABASE command is optionally idempotent, with the default behavior to fail with an error if the database does not exist.

Appending IF EXISTS to the command ensures that no error is returned and nothing happens if the database does not exist.

It always returns an error if there is an existing alias that targets the database. In that case, the alias needs to be dropped before dropping the database.

DROP DATABASE customers IF EXISTS

Delete a database with DUMP DATA or DESTROY DATA

By appending DUMP DATA to the command DROP DATABASE, you can create a dump of the store files before deleting the database:

DROP DATABASE movies DUMP DATA

In Neo4j, dumps can be stored in the directory specified by the server.directories.dumps.root setting (by default, the path for storing dumps is <neo4j-home>/data/dumps). You can use dumps to create databases through the Seed from URI approach.

The option DESTROY DATA explicitly requests the default behavior of the command.

The dumps produced by DUMP DATA are equivalent to those produced by neo4j-admin database dump. You can also restore them using the neo4j-admin database load command.

Delete a database with IF EXISTS and DUMP DATA/DESTROY DATA

The options IF EXISTS and DUMP DATA/DESTROY DATA can also be combined.

An example could look like this:

DROP DATABASE customers IF EXISTS DUMP DATA

Delete a database with local database aliases targeting it

There are two ways of dropping a database that is the target of local database aliases:

  • Drop the local database aliases first, then use DROP DATABASE name to drop the database. Remote database aliases targeting the database do not affect the deletion of the database and therefore dos not need to be dropped beforehand.

  • Use DROP DATABASE name CASCADE ALIASES to also drop the local database aliases targeting it while dropping the database. If any of the dropped database aliases are constituents of composite databases, those composite databases will not be dropped. This command does not affect the remote database aliases targeting the database being dropped. They will simply no longer resolve their targets as if they were created targeting a non-existing database.

Using CASCADE ALIASES requires the DROP ALIAS privilege. For more information about the privilege, see ALIAS MANAGEMENT privileges.

Example 1. Drop a database and the local database alias targeting it

The following example creates a database movies and a local database alias films targeting it:

CREATE DATABASE movies
CREATE ALIAS films FOR DATABASE movies

Then, the database movies and the local database alias films can be dropped using the following command:

DROP DATABASE movies CASCADE ALIASES

The option RESTRICT explicitly requests the default behavior of the command.

For standard databases, the aliases that are dropped when using the CASCADE ALIASES option can be found in the aliases column of SHOW DATABASE.

Delete a database with RESTRICT/CASCADE ALIASES and other command parts

The options RESTRICT/CASCADE ALIASES can also be combined with IF EXISTS and DUMP DATA/DESTROY DATA. For example:

DROP DATABASE movies IF EXISTS CASCADE ALIASES DUMP DATA