DROP INDEX
- Capella Operational
- reference
The DROP INDEX statement allows you to drop a secondary index, a Composite Vector index, or a Hyperscale Vector index. Dropping an index that has replicas will drop all of the replica indexes too.
The DROP VECTOR INDEX statement is a synonym for the DROP INDEX statement. Both statements have the same functionality.
To drop a primary index, use the DROP PRIMARY INDEX statement. For compatibility with legacy versions of Couchbase Server, you can also use DROP INDEX or DROP VECTOR INDEX to drop a named primary index. |
Prerequisites
RBAC Privileges
To use the DROP INDEX statement, you must have the Query Manage Index
privilege on the keyspace or bucket.
For more information about user roles, see
Manage Cluster Access Credentials.
Syntax
drop-index ::= 'DROP' 'INDEX' ( index-path-and-name | index-name-on-keyspace )
index-using?

The DROP INDEX statement provides two possible syntaxes for specifying the index and the keyspace where the index is located.
index-path-and-name |
(Optional) One possible syntax for specifying the index and keyspace. See Index Path and Name. |
index-name-on-keyspace |
(Optional) The other possible syntax for specifying the index and keyspace. See Index Name ON Keyspace Reference. |
index-using |
(Optional) Specifies the index type. See USING Clause. |
Index Path and Name
index-path-and-name ::= index-path '.' index-name ( 'IF' 'EXISTS' )? |
'IF' 'EXISTS' index-path '.' index-name

You can use a dotted notation to specify the index and the keyspace on which the index is built. This syntax provides compatibility with legacy versions of Couchbase Server.
index-name |
(Required) A unique name that identifies the index. |
index-path |
(Required) See Index Path. |
If there is a hyphen (-) inside the index name or any part of the index path, you must wrap the index name or that part of the index path in backticks (` `). See the examples on this page. |
Index Path
index-path ::= keyspace-full | keyspace-prefix | keyspace-partial

The index path may be a full keyspace path, a keyspace prefix, or a keyspace partial.
Index Path: Full Keyspace
keyspace-full ::= namespace ':' bucket '.' scope '.' collection

If the index is built on a named collection, the index path may be a full keyspace path, including namespace, bucket, scope, and collection, followed by the index name. In this case, the query context is ignored.
namespace |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the namespace of the keyspace.
Currently, only the |
bucket |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the bucket name of the keyspace. |
scope |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the scope name of the keyspace. |
collection |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the collection name of the keyspace. |
For example, default:`travel-sample`.inventory.airline.`idx-name`
indicates the idx-name
index on the airline
collection in the inventory
scope in the default:`travel-sample`
bucket.
Index Path: Keyspace Prefix
keyspace-prefix ::= ( namespace ':' )? bucket

If the index is built on the default collection in the default scope within a bucket, the index path may be just an optional namespace and the bucket name, followed by the index name. In this case, the query context should not be set.
namespace |
(Optional) An identifier that refers to the namespace of the keyspace.
Currently, only the |
bucket |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the bucket name of the keyspace. |
For example, default:`travel-sample`.def_type
indicates the def_type
index on the default collection in the default scope in the default:`travel-sample`
bucket.
Index Path: Keyspace Partial
keyspace-partial ::= collection

Alternatively, if the keyspace is a named collection, the index path may be just the collection name, followed by the index name. In this case, you must set the query context to indicate the required namespace, bucket, and scope.
collection |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the collection name of the keyspace. |
For example, airline.`idx-name`
indicates the idx-name
index on the airline
collection, assuming that the query context is set.
Index Name ON Keyspace Reference
index-name-on-keyspace ::= ( index-name ( 'IF' 'EXISTS' )? | 'IF' 'EXISTS' index-name )
'ON' keyspace-ref

You can use the index name with the ON
keyword and a keyspace reference to specify the index and the keyspace on which the index is built.
index-name |
(Required) A unique name that identifies the index. |
keyspace-ref |
(Required) See Keyspace Reference. |
If there is a hyphen (-) inside the index name or any part of the keyspace reference, you must wrap the index name or that part of the keyspace reference in backticks (` `). See the examples on this page. |
Keyspace Reference
keyspace-ref ::= keyspace-path | keyspace-partial

The keyspace reference may be a keyspace path or a keyspace partial.
Keyspace Reference: Keyspace Path
keyspace-path ::= ( namespace ':' )? bucket ( '.' scope '.' collection )?

If the keyspace is a named collection, or the default collection in the default scope within a bucket, the keyspace reference may be a keyspace path. In this case, the query context should not be set.
namespace |
(Optional) An identifier that refers to the namespace of the keyspace.
Currently, only the |
bucket |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the bucket name of the keyspace. |
scope |
(Optional) An identifier that refers to the scope name of the keyspace. If omitted, the bucket’s default scope is used. |
collection |
(Optional) An identifier that refers to the collection name of the keyspace. If omitted, the default collection in the bucket’s default scope is used. |
For example, def_type ON default:`travel-sample`
indicates the def_type
index on the default collection in the default scope in the default:`travel-sample`
bucket.
Similarly, `idx-name` ON default:`travel-sample`.inventory.airline
indicates the idx-name
index on the airline
collection in the inventory
scope in the default:`travel-sample`
bucket.
Keyspace Reference: Keyspace Partial
keyspace-partial ::= collection

Alternatively, if the keyspace is a named collection, the keyspace reference may be just the collection name. In this case, you must set the query context to indicate the required namespace, bucket, and scope.
collection |
(Required) An identifier that refers to the collection name of the keyspace. |
For example, `idx-name` ON airline
indicates the idx-name
index on the airline
collection, assuming the query context is set.
IF EXISTS Clause
The optional IF EXISTS
clause enables the statement to complete successfully when the specified index does not exist.
If the index does not exist within the specified keyspace, then:
-
If this clause is not present, an error is generated.
-
If this clause is present, the statement does nothing and completes without error.
Usage
When using memory-optimized indexes, DROP INDEX is an expensive operation and may take a few minutes to complete.
If you drop an index with replicas while one of the index nodes is failed over, then only the replicas in the active index nodes are dropped. If the failed-over index node is recovered, then the orphan replica will be dropped when this failed-over indexer is added back to cluster.
If you drop an index with replicas when one of the index nodes is unavailable but not failed over, the drop index operation may fail.
If you drop an index which is scheduled for background creation, a warning message is generated, but the drop index operation succeeds.
Attention
Do not drop (or create) secondary indexes, Composite Vector indexes, or Hyperscale Vector indexes when any Index service node is down, as this may result in duplicate index names. |
Examples
To try the examples in this section, you must set the query context as described in each example.
This example drops an index from the default collection in the default scope within the travel-sample
bucket.
For this example, unset the query context.
For more information, see Query Context.
First create a secondary index on the default collection in the default scope in the travel-sample
bucket.
Once the index creation statement comes back, query system:indexes
for the status of the index.
CREATE INDEX `idx-callsign` ON `travel-sample`(callsign) USING GSI;
SELECT * FROM system:indexes WHERE name="idx-callsign";
Subsequently, drop the index and check that it’s no longer reported in the system:indexes
output.
DROP INDEX `travel-sample`.`idx-callsign` USING GSI;
SELECT * FROM system:indexes WHERE name="idx-callsign";
The following command would drop the index in exactly the same way, but uses alternative syntax.
DROP INDEX `idx-callsign` ON `travel-sample` USING GSI;
This example drops an index from the airline
collection.
For this example, the path to the required keyspace is specified by the query, so you do not need to set the query context.
First create an index called idx-name
in the airline
collection.
CREATE INDEX `idx-name` ON `travel-sample`.inventory.airline(name) USING GSI;
Drop the index idx-name
from the airline
collection.
DROP INDEX `idx-name` ON `travel-sample`.inventory.airline;
For this example, set the query context to the inventory
scope in the travel sample dataset.
For more information, see Query Context.
Create an index called idx-name
in the airline
collection.
CREATE INDEX `idx-name` ON airline(name);
Drop the index idx-name
from the airline
collection.
DROP INDEX `idx-name` ON airline;
The following command would drop the index in exactly the same way, but uses alternative syntax.
DROP INDEX airline.`idx-name`;