MySQL: how to drop multiple tables using single query?

Question

I want to drop multiple tables with ease without actually listing the table names in the drop query and the tables to be deleted have prefix say \'wp_\'

Answer 1

Just sharing one of the solutions:

mysql> SELECT CONCAT( "DROP TABLE ",
GROUP_CONCAT(TABLE_NAME) ) AS stmt

FROM information_schema.TABLES

WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = "your_db_name" AND TABLE_NAME LIKE "ur condition" into outfile '/tmp/a.txt';

mysql> source /tmp/a.txt;

Answer 2

For the great mysqldump solution it's better to use the option --skip-quote-names

mysqldump --skip-quote-names -u user -p database > dump.sql 
grep "DROP TABLE wp_" dump.sql > drop.sql
mysql -u user -p database < drop.sql

You get rid of backticks in table names. The grep part won't work in some enviroments with the backticks.

Answer 3

Be careful with "_", need to be written with "\" before in Mysql like:

SELECT CONCAT('DROP TABLE',GROUP_CONCAT(CONCAT(table_schema,'.',table_name)),';') INTO @dropcmd FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='databasename' AND table_name LIKE '**my\\_table**%';

Answer 4

I've used a query very similar to Angelin's. In case you have more than a few tables, one has to increase the max length of group_concat. Otherwise the query will barf on the truncated string that group_concat returns.

This is my 10 cents:

-- Increase memory to avoid truncating string, adjust according to your needs
SET group_concat_max_len = 1024 * 1024 * 10;
-- Generate drop command and assign to variable
SELECT CONCAT('DROP TABLE ',GROUP_CONCAT(CONCAT(table_schema,'.',table_name)),';') INTO @dropcmd FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='databasename' AND table_name LIKE 'my_table%';
-- Drop tables
PREPARE str FROM @dropcmd; EXECUTE str; DEALLOCATE PREPARE str;

Answer 5

Dropping single table in mysql:

DROP TABLE TABLE_NAME;

Answer 6

Go to c:\xampp\mysql\data\your folder

Select multiple tables that you want remove and then press delete button

Thanks