
DROP ACCESS METHOD — remove an access method

## Synopsis

DROP ACCESS METHOD \[ IF EXISTS \] _`name`_ \[ CASCADE | RESTRICT \]

## Description

`DROP ACCESS METHOD` removes an existing access method. Only superusers can drop access methods.

## Parameters

`IF EXISTS`

Do not throw an error if the access method does not exist. A notice is issued in this case.

_`name`_

The name of an existing access method.

`CASCADE`

Automatically drop objects that depend on the access method (such as operator classes, operator families, and indexes), and in turn all objects that depend on those objects (see [Section 5.15](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-depend.html "5.15. Dependency Tracking")).

`RESTRICT`

Refuse to drop the access method if any objects depend on it. This is the default.

## Examples

Drop the access method `heptree`:

DROP ACCESS METHOD heptree;

## Compatibility

`DROP ACCESS METHOD` is a PostgreSQL extension.
