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] [{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

These dumps are equivalent to those produced by neo4j-admin database dump and can be similarly restored using the neo4j-admin database load command.

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).

The option DESTROY DATA explicitly requests the default behavior of the 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