drop

Syntax

drop

The drop command removes an entire collection from a database. The command has following syntax:

Tip

In the mongo Shell, this command can also be run through the drop() helper method.

Helper methods are convenient for mongo users, but they may not return the same level of information as database commands. In cases where the convenience is not needed or the additional return fields are required, use the database command.

{ drop: <collection_name>, writeConcern: <document>, comment: <any> }

The command takes the following fields:

Field	Description
drop	The name of the collection to drop.
writeConcern	Optional. A document expressing the write concern of the drop command. Omit to use the default write concern. When issued on a sharded cluster, mongos converts the write concern of the drop command and its helper db.collection.drop() to "majority".
comment	Optional. A user-provided comment to attach to this command. Once set, this comment appears alongside records of this command in the following locations: mongod log messages, in the attr.command.cursor.comment field. Database profiler output, in the command.comment field. currentOp output, in the command.comment field. A comment can be any valid BSON type (string, integer, object, array, etc). New in version 4.4.

The mongo shell provides the equivalent helper method db.collection.drop().

Behavior

• This command also removes any indexes associated with the dropped collection.

• Starting in MongoDB 4.4, the db.collection.drop() method and drop command abort any in-progress index builds on the target collection before dropping the collection. Prior to MongoDB 4.4, attempting to drop a collection with in-progress index builds results in an error, and the collection is not dropped.

  For replica sets or shard replica sets, aborting an index on the primary does not simultaneously abort secondary index builds. MongoDB attempts to abort the in-progress builds for the specified indexes on the primary and if successful creates an associated abort oplog entry. Secondary members with replicated in-progress builds wait for a commit or abort oplog entry from the primary before either committing or aborting the index build.

• The drop command and its helper db.collection.drop() create an invalidate for any Change Streams opened on the dropped collection.

• Dropping a collection deletes its associated zone/tag ranges.