REMOVE statement

The REMOVE statement is used to remove resources such as databases, tables, indexes, events and more. Similar to an SQL DROP statement.

Statement syntax

SurrealQL Syntax
REMOVE [
	NAMESPACE [ IF EXISTS ] @name
	| DATABASE [ IF EXISTS] @name
	| USER [ IF EXISTS ] @name ON [ ROOT | NAMESPACE | DATABASE ]
	| ACCESS [ IF EXISTS ] @name ON [ NAMESPACE | DATABASE ]
	| EVENT [ IF EXISTS ] @name ON [ TABLE ] @table
	| FIELD [ IF EXISTS ] @name ON [ TABLE ] @table
	| INDEX [ IF EXISTS ] @name ON [ TABLE ] @table
    | ANALYZER [ IF EXISTS ] @name
    | FUNCTION [ IF EXISTS ] fn::@name
    | PARAM [ IF EXISTS ] $@name
	| TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] @name
]

Example usage

Basic usage

The following queries show an example of how to remove resources

REMOVE NAMESPACE surrealdb;

REMOVE DATABASE blog;

REMOVE USER writer ON NAMESPACE;

REMOVE USER writer ON DATABASE;

REMOVE ACCESS token ON NAMESPACE;

REMOVE ACCESS user ON DATABASE;

REMOVE EVENT new_post ON TABLE article;

-- Only works for Schemafull tables (i.e. tables with a schema)
REMOVE FIELD tags ON TABLE article;

REMOVE INDEX authors ON TABLE article;

REMOVE ANALYZER example_ascii;

REMOVE FUNCTION fn::update_author;

REMOVE PARAM $author;

REMOVE TABLE article;

Using if exists clause

Available since: v1.3.0

The following queries show an example of how to remove resources using the IF EXISTS clause, which will only remove the resource if it exists.

REMOVE NAMESPACE IF EXISTS surrealdb;

REMOVE DATABASE IF EXISTS blog;

REMOVE USER IF EXISTS writer ON NAMESPACE;

REMOVE USER IF EXISTS writer ON DATABASE;

REMOVE ACCESS IF EXISTS token ON NAMESPACE;

REMOVE ACCESS IF EXISTS user ON DATABASE;

REMOVE EVENT IF EXISTS new_post ON TABLE article;

-- Only works for Schemaful tables (i.e. tables with a schema)
REMOVE FIELD IF EXISTS tags ON TABLE article;

REMOVE INDEX IF EXISTS authors ON TABLE article;

REMOVE ANALYZER IF EXISTS example_ascii;

REMOVE FUNCTION IF EXISTS fn::update_author;

REMOVE PARAM IF EXISTS $author;

REMOVE TABLE IF EXISTS article;