DROP INDEX

Purpose

Use the DROP INDEX statement to remove an index or domain index from the database.

See Also: CREATE INDEX for information on creating an index ALTER INDEX for information on modifying an index The domain_index_clause of CREATE INDEX for more information on domain indexes

Prerequisites

The index must be in your own schema or you must have the DROP ANY INDEX system privilege.

Syntax

Keywords and Parameters

schema

Specify the schema containing the index. If you omit schema, Oracle assumes the index is in your own schema.

index

Specify the name of the index to be dropped. When the index is dropped, all data blocks allocated to the index are returned to the index's tablespace.

If you drop a domain index:

• Oracle invokes the appropriate indextype drop routine. For information on these routines, see Oracle8i Data Cartridge Developer's Guide.

• In addition, if any statistics are associated with the domain index, Oracle disassociates the statistics types with the FORCE clause and removes the user-defined statistics collected with the statistics type.

  See Also: ASSOCIATE STATISTICS and DISASSOCIATE STATISTICS for more information on statistics type associations

If you drop a global partitioned index, a range-partitioned, or a hash-partitioned index, all the index partitions are also dropped. If you drop a a composite-partitioned index, all the index partitions and subpartitions are also dropped.

FORCE

FORCE applies only to domain indexes. This clause drops the domain index even if the indextype routine invocation returns an error or the index is marked LOADING. Without FORCE, you cannot drop a domain index if its indextype routine invocation returns an error or the index is marked LOADING.

Example

DROP INDEX Example

This statement drops an index named monolith:

DROP INDEX monolith;