---
title: "DROP COLLATION"
id: sql-dropcollation
pg_version: "20devel"
---

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# DROP COLLATION — remove a collation

## Synopsis

```
DROP COLLATION [ IF EXISTS ] name [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
```

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## Description

`DROP COLLATION` removes a previously defined collation. To be able to drop a collation, you must own the collation. 

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## Parameters

**`IF EXISTS`**

 Do not throw an error if the collation does not exist. A notice is issued in this case. **`name`**

 The name of the collation. The collation name can be schema-qualified. **`CASCADE`**

 Automatically drop objects that depend on the collation, and in turn all objects that depend on those objects (see [Section 5.17](ddl-depend.md)). **`RESTRICT`**

 Refuse to drop the collation if any objects depend on it. This is the default. <a id="sql-dropcollation-examples"></a>

## Examples

To drop the collation named `german`: 
DROP COLLATION german;


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## Compatibility

The `DROP COLLATION` command conforms to the SQL standard, apart from the `IF EXISTS` option, which is a PostgreSQL extension. 

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## See Also

[ALTER COLLATION](sql-altercollation.md), [CREATE COLLATION](sql-createcollation.md)