Delete a table

Use the influxctl table delete command to delete a table from a database in your {{< product-name omit=" Cluster" >}} cluster.

[!Warning]

Wait before writing to a new table with the same name

After deleting a table from your {{% product-name omit=" Cluster" %}} cluster, you can reuse the name to create a new table, but wait two to three minutes after deleting the previous table before writing to the new table to allow write caches to clear.

[!Note]

Deleted tables may be able to be restored

Deleted tables may be able to be restored within the configurable "hard-delete" grace period.

Provide the following arguments:

• Database name: Name of the database that contains the table to delete
• Table name: Name of the table to delete

{{% code-placeholders "DATABASE_NAME|TABLE_NAME" %}}

influxctl table delete DATABASE_NAME TABLE_NAME

{{% /code-placeholders %}}

Replace the following:

• {{% code-placeholder-key %}}DATABASE_NAME{{% /code-placeholder-key %}}: Name of the database that contains the table to delete
• {{% code-placeholder-key %}}TABLE_NAME{{% /code-placeholder-key %}}: Name of the table to delete

When prompted, enter y to confirm the deletion.

{{% note %}}

Pause writes before deleting a table

{{% product-name %}} creates tables implicitly using table names specified in line protocol written to the databases. To prevent the deleted table from being immediately recreated by incoming write requests, pause all write requests to the table before deleting it. {{% /note %}}