Edit

DROP EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT (Transact-SQL)

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW)

Removes a PolyBase external file format.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

-- Drop an external file format  
DROP EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT external_file_format_name  
[;]

Arguments

external_file_format_name
The name of the external file format to drop.

Metadata

To view a list of external file formats use the sys.external_file_formats (Transact-SQL) system view.

SELECT * FROM sys.external_file_formats;

Permissions

Requires ALTER ANY EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT.

General Remarks

Dropping an external file format does not remove the external data.

Locking

Takes a shared lock on the external file format object.

Examples

A. Using basic syntax

DROP EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT myfileformat;

See Also

CREATE EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT (Transact-SQL)