SQL Drop Column Syntax

Sometimes we will wish to delete a column from an existing table in SQL. To do this, we specify that we want to change the table structure via the ALTER TABLE command, followed by a specification indicating that we want to remove a column. The detailed syntax for each database is as follow:

In MySQL, the syntax for ALTER TABLE Drop Column is,

In Oracle, SQL Server, and Google BigQuery, the syntax for ALTER TABLE Drop Column is,

Let's look at the example. Assuming our starting point is the Customer table created in the CREATE TABLE section:

Table Customer

Our goal is to drop the "Birth_Date" column. To do this, we key in:

MySQL:

SQL Server:

Oracle:

Google BigQuery:

The resulting table structure is:

Table Customer