How to drop a collection in MongoDB

In MongoDB, a collection is like a container where we store related data. It's similar to a table in a relational database. Each collection consists of documents and each document has its own data.

What is drop collection in MongoDB?

In MongoDB, dropping a collection refers to deleting a collection in our database. We would want to delete a particular collection for various reasons.

In this Answer, we will learn how to drop a collection using the drop() method.

Syntax

The syntax of drop() method is as following:

db.collectionName.drop()
Deleting collection using drop() method
  • db : It is the current database we are working with.

  • collectionName : It is the name of the collection we want to delete.

Parameters

The drop() method accepts an optional parameter which is a callback function.

drop(function(error, statusCollection){ //call back function body })
Parameters of drop() method
  • error : If an error occurs while deletion of the collection then this error is stored in the variable error.

  • statusCollection : It tells us the status of our deletion. In case of successful deletion, its value is true otherwise false.

Example

The following example will help us better understand how to delete a collection using the drop() method. We have already created our database db and made a collection users in it. Write the command db.users.drop() to delete the collection users. Then write show collections on the terminal to verify if the collection has been deleted.

Note: We can also try the following example with the drop() method having a callback function as a parameter.

Terminal 1
Terminal
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Conclusion

We can use the drop() method to delete a collection in MongoDB. If we are concerned about the potential error in our code, we can use the drop() method with a callback function as a parameter to deal with the error.

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