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3.5.2 Removing a Column

To remove a column, use a command like this:

ALTER TABLE products DROP COLUMN description;

Whatever data was in the column disappears. Table constraints involving the column are dropped, too. However, if the column is referenced by a foreign key constraint of another table, PostgreSQL will not silently drop that constraint. You can authorize dropping everything that depends on the column by adding CASCADE:

ALTER TABLE products DROP COLUMN description CASCADE;

See section 3.11 Dependency Tracking for a description of the general mechanism behind this.