How to Drop a Tablespace | Oracle Database

How to Drop a Tablespace in Oracle Database

You can drop a tablespace and its contents (the segments contained in the tablespace) from the database if the tablespace and its contents are no longer required. You must have the DROP TABLESPACE system privilege to drop a tablespace.

Caution: Once a tablespace has been dropped, the data in the tablespace is not recoverable. Therefore, make sure that all data contained in a tablespace to be dropped will not be required in the future. Also, immediately before and after dropping a tablespace from a database, back up the database completely

To drop a tablespace give the following command.

SQL> drop tablespace ica;

This will drop the tablespace only if it is empty. If it is not empty and if you want to drop it anyhow then add the following keyword

SQL> drop tablespace ica including contents;

This will drop the tablespace even if it is not empty. But the datafiles will not be deleted you have to use operating system command to delete the files.

But If  you include datafiles keyword then, the associated datafiles will also be deleted from the disk.

SQL> drop tablespace ica including contents and datafiles;