MongoDB - Drop Collection

MongoDB - Dropping a Collection

In MongoDB, you can remove an entire collection from a database. This operation is permanent and also removes all documents and indexes associated with that collection.

The drop() Method

MongoDB’s db.collection.drop() method is used to drop a collection from the current database.

Syntax

The basic syntax for the drop() command is as follows:

db.COLLECTION_NAME.drop()

Important Considerations

• Irreversible Operation: Dropping a collection is a destructive and permanent action. Once a collection is dropped, its data cannot be recovered without a backup.
• Index Removal: This command deletes all indexes associated with the collection, freeing up the storage space they occupied.
• Resource Locks: The drop() method obtains an exclusive lock on the specified collection during its operation. Other operations on the collection will be blocked until the drop is complete.

Example

First, let’s switch to our database and see the available collections.

// Switch to the 'productDB' database
use productDB

// Show all collections in the current database
show collections

The output might look like this, showing we have a products collection and a temporary_data collection we want to remove.

products
temporary_data

Now, let’s drop the collection named temporary_data.

db.temporary_data.drop()

If the operation is successful, MongoDB will return true.

true

Let’s check the list of collections again to confirm the removal.

show collections

The output now shows that temporary_data has been successfully dropped.

products

The drop() method will return true if the selected collection was dropped successfully. If the collection does not exist, it will return false.