SQL COMMANDS / TRIGGERS & RULES

DROP TRIGGER

remove a trigger

Syntax

DROP TRIGGER [ IF EXISTS ] name ON table_name [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

Syntax diagrams

Read left to right. Branches are choices, bypasses are optional, loops repeat. Select an underlined parameter to open its rule.

Description

DROP TRIGGER removes an existing trigger definition. To execute this command, the current user must be the owner of the table for which the trigger is defined.

Parameters

IF EXISTS: Do not throw an error if the trigger does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.
name: The name of the trigger to remove.
table_name: The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table for which the trigger is defined.
CASCADE: Automatically drop objects that depend on the trigger, and in turn all objects that depend on those objects (see Section 5.15).
RESTRICT: Refuse to drop the trigger if any objects depend on it. This is the default.

Examples

Destroy the trigger if_dist_exists on the table films:

DROP TRIGGER if_dist_exists ON films;

Compatibility

The DROP TRIGGER statement in PostgreSQL is incompatible with the SQL standard. In the SQL standard, trigger names are not local to tables, so the command is simply DROP TRIGGER name.

Related entries

Definition snapshot: 2026-09-14T13:14:25.700916+00:00@99e6866c · English manual source