How can I drop all the tables in a PostgreSQL database?

How can I drop all tables in PostgreSQL, working from the command line?

I don't want to drop the database itself, just all tables and all the data in them.

If all of your tables are in a single schema, this approach could work (below code assumes that the name of your schema is public)

DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;
CREATE SCHEMA public;

If you are using PostgreSQL 9.3 or greater, you may also need to restore the default grants.

GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO postgres;
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO public;

You can write a query to generate a SQL script like this:

select 'drop table "' || tablename || '" cascade;' from pg_tables;

Or:

select 'drop table if exists "' || tablename || '" cascade;' from pg_tables;

In case some tables are automatically dropped due to cascade option in a previous sentence.

Additionally, as stated in the comments, you might want to filter the tables you want to drop by schema name:

select 'drop table if exists "' || tablename || '" cascade;' 
  from pg_tables
 where schemaname = 'public'; -- or any other schema

And then run it.

Glorious COPY+PASTE will also work.

The most accepted answer as of this writing (January 2014) is:

drop schema public cascade;
create schema public;

This does work, however if your intention is to restore the public schema to its virgin state this does not fully accomplish the task. Under pgAdmin III for PostgreSQL 9.3.1, if you click on the "public" schema created this way and look in the "SQL pane" you will see the following:

-- Schema: public

-- DROP SCHEMA public;

CREATE SCHEMA public
  AUTHORIZATION postgres;

However, by contrast a brand new database will have the following:

-- Schema: public

-- DROP SCHEMA public;

CREATE SCHEMA public
  AUTHORIZATION postgres;

GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO postgres;
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO public;
COMMENT ON SCHEMA public
  IS 'standard public schema';

For me using a python web framework which creates database tables (web2py), using the former caused problems:

<class 'psycopg2.ProgrammingError'> no schema has been selected to create in 

So to my mind the fully correct answer is:

DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;
CREATE SCHEMA public;
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO postgres;
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO public;
COMMENT ON SCHEMA public IS 'standard public schema';

Also note to issue these commands in pgAdmin III, I used the Query tool ( magnifying glass icon "Execute abritrary SQL queries") or you could use Plugins-> PSQL Console

Note

If you have any extensions installed they will be dropped when you drop the schema, so you should make note of what you need installed and then execute statements as necessary. E.g.

CREATE EXTENSION postgis;

You can drop all tables with

DO $$ DECLARE
	r RECORD;
BEGIN
	-- if the schema you operate on is not "current", you will want to
	-- replace current_schema() in query with 'schematodeletetablesfrom'
	-- *and* update the generate 'DROP...' accordingly.
	FOR r IN (SELECT tablename FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = current_schema()) LOOP
		EXECUTE 'DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ' || quote_ident(r.tablename) || ' CASCADE';
	END LOOP;
END $$;

IMO this is better than drop schema public, because you don't need to recreate the schema and restore all the grants.

Additional bonus that this doesn't require external scripting language, nor copy-pasting of generated SQL back to the interpreter.

If everything you want to drop is owned by the same user, then you can use:

drop owned by the_user;

This will drop everything that the user owns.

That includes materialized views, views, sequences, triggers, schemas, functions, types, aggregates, operators, domains and so on (so, really: everything) that the_user owns (=created).

You have to replace the_user with the actual username, currently there is no option to drop everything for "the current user". The upcoming 9.5 version will have the option drop owned by current_user.

More details in the manual: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-drop-owned.html

As per Pablo above, to just drop from a specific schema, with respect to case:

select 'drop table "' || tablename || '" cascade;' 
from pg_tables where schemaname = 'public';

This is a really interesting question, and you'll get it done in Multiple ways:

1. By dropping and recreating the current schema

Here, In general, we have a public schema by default. So, I'm using it as an instance.

-- Recreate the schema
DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;
CREATE SCHEMA public;

-- Restore default permissions
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO postgres;
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO public;

If you are using PostgreSQL 9.3 or greater, you may also need to restore the default grants.

Pros:

This will clean an entire Schema and re-create it as a new one.

Cons:

You'll lose other entities too like Functions, Views, Materialized views, etc.

2. By using fetching all table names from pg_tables table.

PostgreSQL stores all the tables on its record table named pg_table.

SELECT
  'DROP TABLE IF EXISTS "' || tablename || '" CASCADE;' 
from
  pg_tables WHERE schemaname = 'public';

As you can see, By the use of subquery, We can remove the entire tables from the schema.

Pros:

When the other data entities are Important and you just want to delete only tables from the schema, this approach will really helpful to you.

3. Terminal

• Login using postgres user on your shell

$ sudo -u postgres psql

• Connect your database

$ \c mydatabase

Paste these commands:

DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;
CREATE SCHEMA public;
     
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO postgres;
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO public;

Note: This bunch of commands are similar to the first point, so the Pros and cons will remain the same.

drop schema public cascade;

should do the trick.

Following steps might be helpful (For linux users):

1. At first enter the postgres command prompt by following command:

   sudo -u postgres psql
   

2. Enter the database by this command (my database name is: maoss):

   \c maoss
   

3. Now enter the command for droping all tables:

   DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;
   CREATE SCHEMA public;
   
   GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO postgres;
   GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO public;
   

4. Now exit from psql by following command:

   \q
   

Following Pablo and LenW, here's a one-liner that does it all both preparing and then executing:

psql -U $PGUSER $PGDB -t -c "select 'drop table \"' || tablename || '\" cascade;' from pg_tables where schemaname = 'public'" | psql -U $PGUSER $PGDB

NB: either set or replace $PGUSER and $PGDB with the values you want

If you have the PL/PGSQL procedural language installed you can use the following to remove everything without a shell/Perl external script.

DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS remove_all();

CREATE FUNCTION remove_all() RETURNS void AS $$
DECLARE
    rec RECORD;
    cmd text;
BEGIN
    cmd := '';

    FOR rec IN SELECT
            'DROP SEQUENCE ' || quote_ident(n.nspname) || '.'
                || quote_ident(c.relname) || ' CASCADE;' AS name
        FROM
            pg_catalog.pg_class AS c
        LEFT JOIN
            pg_catalog.pg_namespace AS n
        ON
            n.oid = c.relnamespace
        WHERE
            relkind = 'S' AND
            n.nspname NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'pg_toast') AND
            pg_catalog.pg_table_is_visible(c.oid)
    LOOP
        cmd := cmd || rec.name;
    END LOOP;

    FOR rec IN SELECT
            'DROP TABLE ' || quote_ident(n.nspname) || '.'
                || quote_ident(c.relname) || ' CASCADE;' AS name
        FROM
            pg_catalog.pg_class AS c
        LEFT JOIN
            pg_catalog.pg_namespace AS n
        ON
            n.oid = c.relnamespace WHERE relkind = 'r' AND
            n.nspname NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'pg_toast') AND
            pg_catalog.pg_table_is_visible(c.oid)
    LOOP
        cmd := cmd || rec.name;
    END LOOP;

    FOR rec IN SELECT
            'DROP FUNCTION ' || quote_ident(ns.nspname) || '.'
                || quote_ident(proname) || '(' || oidvectortypes(proargtypes)
                || ');' AS name
        FROM
            pg_proc
        INNER JOIN
            pg_namespace ns
        ON
            (pg_proc.pronamespace = ns.oid)
        WHERE
            ns.nspname =
            'public'
        ORDER BY
            proname
    LOOP
        cmd := cmd || rec.name;
    END LOOP;

    EXECUTE cmd;
    RETURN;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

SELECT remove_all();

Rather than type this in at the "psql" prompt I would suggest you copy it to a file and then pass the file as input to psql using the "--file" or "-f" options:

psql -f clean_all_pg.sql

Credit where credit is due: I wrote the function, but think the queries (or the first one at least) came from someone on one of the pgsql mailing lists years ago. Don't remember exactly when or which one.

If you want to nuke all tables anyway, you can dispense with niceties such as CASCADE by putting all tables into a single statement. This also makes execution quicker.

SELECT 'TRUNCATE TABLE ' || string_agg('"' || tablename || '"', ', ') || ';' 
FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = 'public';

Executing it directly:

DO $$
DECLARE tablenames text;
BEGIN    
	tablenames := string_agg('"' || tablename || '"', ', ') 
		FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = 'public';
    EXECUTE 'TRUNCATE TABLE ' || tablenames;
END; $$

Replace TRUNCATE with DROP as applicable.

I modified Pablo's answer slightly for the convenience of having the generated SQL commands returned as one single string:

select string_agg('drop table "' || tablename || '" cascade', '; ') 
from pg_tables where schemaname = 'public'

Just in case... Simple Python script that clean Postgresql database

import psycopg2
import sys

# Drop all tables from a given database

try:
    conn = psycopg2.connect("dbname='akcja_miasto' user='postgres' password='postgres'")
    conn.set_isolation_level(0)
except:
    print "Unable to connect to the database."

cur = conn.cursor()

try:
    cur.execute("SELECT table_schema,table_name FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema = 'public' ORDER BY table_schema,table_name")
    rows = cur.fetchall()
    for row in rows:
        print "dropping table: ", row[1]   
        cur.execute("drop table " + row[1] + " cascade") 
    cur.close()
    conn.close()        
except:
    print "Error: ", sys.exc_info()[1]

Make sure that after copying it the indentation is right since Python relies on it.

Use this script in pgAdmin:

DO $$
DECLARE 
	brow record;
BEGIN
	FOR brow IN (select 'drop table "' || tablename || '" cascade;' as table_name from pg_tables where schemaname = 'public') LOOP
		EXECUTE brow.table_name;
	END LOOP;
END; $$

If you want delete data (not delete table):

-- Truncate tables and restart sequnces
SELECT 'TRUNCATE TABLE "' || table_schema || '"."' || table_name || '" RESTART IDENTITY CASCADE;' 
FROM information_schema.tables 
WHERE table_catalog = '<database>' AND table_schema = '<schema>';

Or if you want drop table your can use this sql:

-- For tables
SELECT 'DROP TABLE "' || table_schema || '"."' || table_name || '" CASCADE;' 
FROM information_schema.tables 
WHERE table_catalog = '<database>' AND table_schema = '<schema>';

-- For sequences
SELECT 'DROP SEQUENCE d_a_seq "' || sequence_schema || '"."' || sequence_name || '";' 
FROM information_schema.sequences 
WHERE sequence_catalog = '<database>' AND sequence_schema = '<schema>';

You can use the string_agg function to make a comma-separated list, perfect for DROP TABLE. From a bash script:

#!/bin/bash
TABLES=`psql $PGDB -t --command "SELECT string_agg(table_name, ',') FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='public'"`

echo Dropping tables:${TABLES}
psql $PGDB --command "DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ${TABLES} CASCADE"

Note: my answer is about really deleting the tables and other database objects; for deleting all data in the tables, i.e. truncating all tables, Endre Both has provided a similarily well-executed (direct execution) statement a month later.

For the cases where you can’t just DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;, DROP OWNED BY current_user; or something, here’s a stand-alone SQL script I wrote, which is transaction-safe (i.e. you can put it between BEGIN; and either ROLLBACK; to just test it out or COMMIT; to actually do the deed) and cleans up “all” database objects… well, all those used in the database our application uses or I could sensibly add, which is:

• triggers on tables
• constraints on tables (FK, PK, CHECK, UNIQUE)
• indicēs
• VIEWs (normal or materialised)
• tables
• sequences
• routines (aggregate functions, functions, procedures)
• all nōn-default (i.e. not public or DB-internal) schemata “we” own: the script is useful when run as “not a database superuser”; a superuser can drop all schemata (the really important ones are still explicitly excluded, though)
• extensions (user-contributed but I normally deliberately leave them in)

Not dropped are (some deliberate; some only because I had no example in our DB):

• the public schema (e.g. for extension-provided stuff in them)
• collations and other locale stuff
• event triggers
• text search stuff, … (see here for other stuff I might have missed)
• roles or other security settings
• composite types
• toast tables
• FDW and foreign tables

This is really useful for the cases when the dump you want to restore is of a different database schema version (e.g. with Debian dbconfig-common, Flyway or Liquibase/DB-Manul) than the database you want to restore it into.

I’ve also got a version which deletes “everything except two tables and what belongs to them” (a sequence, tested manually, sorry, I know, boring) in case someone is interested; the diff is small. Contact me or check this repo if interested.

SQL

-- Copyright © 2019, 2020
--      mirabilos <[email protected]>
--
-- Provided that these terms and disclaimer and all copyright notices
-- are retained or reproduced in an accompanying document, permission
-- is granted to deal in this work without restriction, including un‐
-- limited rights to use, publicly perform, distribute, sell, modify,
-- merge, give away, or sublicence.
--
-- This work is provided “AS IS” and WITHOUT WARRANTY of any kind, to
-- the utmost extent permitted by applicable law, neither express nor
-- implied; without malicious intent or gross negligence. In no event
-- may a licensor, author or contributor be held liable for indirect,
-- direct, other damage, loss, or other issues arising in any way out
-- of dealing in the work, even if advised of the possibility of such
-- damage or existence of a defect, except proven that it results out
-- of said person’s immediate fault when using the work as intended.
-- -
-- Drop everything from the PostgreSQL database.

DO $$
DECLARE
        q TEXT;
        r RECORD;
BEGIN
        -- triggers
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname, pt.tgname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_trigger pt, pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace AND pc.oid=pt.tgrelid
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pt.tgisinternal=false
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP TRIGGER %I ON %I.%I;',
                    r.tgname, r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- constraints #1: foreign key
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname, pcon.conname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_constraint pcon, pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace AND pc.oid=pcon.conrelid
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pcon.contype='f'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('ALTER TABLE ONLY %I.%I DROP CONSTRAINT %I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname, r.conname);
        END LOOP;
        -- constraints #2: the rest
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname, pcon.conname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_constraint pcon, pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace AND pc.oid=pcon.conrelid
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pcon.contype<>'f'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('ALTER TABLE ONLY %I.%I DROP CONSTRAINT %I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname, r.conname);
        END LOOP;
        -- indicēs
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind='i'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP INDEX %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- normal and materialised views
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind IN ('v', 'm')
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP VIEW %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- tables
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind='r'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP TABLE %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- sequences
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pc.relname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_class pc, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pc.relnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pc.relkind='S'
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP SEQUENCE %I.%I;',
                    r.nspname, r.relname);
        END LOOP;
        -- extensions (only if necessary; keep them normally)
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pe.extname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_extension pe, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pe.extnamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP EXTENSION %I;', r.extname);
        END LOOP;
        -- aggregate functions first (because they depend on other functions)
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname, pp.proname, pp.oid
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_proc pp, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns, pg_catalog.pg_aggregate pagg
                WHERE pns.oid=pp.pronamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast')
                    AND pagg.aggfnoid=pp.oid
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP AGGREGATE %I.%I(%s);',
                    r.nspname, r.proname,
                    pg_get_function_identity_arguments(r.oid));
        END LOOP;
        -- routines (functions, aggregate functions, procedures, window functions)
        IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM pg_catalog.pg_attribute
                WHERE attrelid='pg_catalog.pg_proc'::regclass
                    AND attname='prokind' -- PostgreSQL 11+
            ) THEN
                q := 'CASE pp.prokind
                        WHEN ''p'' THEN ''PROCEDURE''
                        WHEN ''a'' THEN ''AGGREGATE''
                        ELSE ''FUNCTION''
                    END';
        ELSIF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM pg_catalog.pg_attribute
                WHERE attrelid='pg_catalog.pg_proc'::regclass
                    AND attname='proisagg' -- PostgreSQL ≤10
            ) THEN
                q := 'CASE pp.proisagg
                        WHEN true THEN ''AGGREGATE''
                        ELSE ''FUNCTION''
                    END';
        ELSE
                q := '''FUNCTION''';
        END IF;
        FOR r IN EXECUTE 'SELECT pns.nspname, pp.proname, pp.oid, ' || q || ' AS pt
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_proc pp, pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns
                WHERE pns.oid=pp.pronamespace
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN (''information_schema'', ''pg_catalog'', ''pg_toast'')
            ' LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP %s %I.%I(%s);', r.pt,
                    r.nspname, r.proname,
                    pg_get_function_identity_arguments(r.oid));
        END LOOP;
        -- nōn-default schemata we own; assume to be run by a not-superuser
        FOR r IN (SELECT pns.nspname
                FROM pg_catalog.pg_namespace pns, pg_catalog.pg_roles pr
                WHERE pr.oid=pns.nspowner
                    AND pns.nspname NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog', 'pg_toast', 'public')
                    AND pr.rolname=current_user
            ) LOOP
                EXECUTE format('DROP SCHEMA %I;', r.nspname);
        END LOOP;
        -- voilà
        RAISE NOTICE 'Database cleared!';
END; $$;

Tested, except later additions (extensions contributed by Clément Prévost), on PostgreSQL 9.6 (jessie-backports). Aggregate removal tested on 9.6 and 12.2, procedure removal tested on 12.2 as well. Bugfixes and further improvements welcome!

You need to drop tables and sequences, here is what worked for me

psql -qAtX -c "select 'DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ' || quote_ident(table_schema) || '.' || quote_ident(table_name) || ' CASCADE;' FROM information_schema.tables where table_type = 'BASE TABLE' and not table_schema ~ '^(information_schema|pg_.*)$'" | psql -qAtX
psql -qAtX -c "select 'DROP SEQUENCE IF EXISTS ' || quote_ident(relname) || ' CASCADE;' from pg_statio_user_sequences;" | psql -qAtX

before you run the command you might need to sudo/su to the postgres user or (export connection details PGHOST, PGPORT, PGUSER and PGPASSWORD) and then export PGDATABASE=yourdatabase

Just execute the query bellow:

DO $$ DECLARE
    r RECORD;
BEGIN
    FOR r IN (SELECT tablename FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = current_schema()) LOOP
        EXECUTE 'DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ' || quote_ident(r.tablename) || ' CASCADE';
    END LOOP;
END $$;

in a Windows batch file:

@echo off
FOR /f "tokens=2 delims=|" %%G IN ('psql --host localhost --username postgres --command="\dt" YOUR_TABLE_NAME') DO (
   psql --host localhost --username postgres --command="DROP table if exists %%G cascade" sfkb
   echo table %%G dropped
)

Rake task for Rails for destroy all tables in current database

namespace :db do
  # rake db:drop_all_tables
  task drop_all_tables: :environment do
    query = <<-QUERY
      SELECT
        table_name
      FROM
        information_schema.tables
      WHERE
        table_type = 'BASE TABLE'
      AND
        table_schema NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'information_schema');
    QUERY

    connection = ActiveRecord::Base.connection
    results    = connection.execute query

    tables = results.map do |line|
      table_name = line['table_name']
    end.join ", "

    connection.execute "DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #{ tables } CASCADE;"
  end
end

I enhanced the bash method from jamie by taking care of views because his only respects the table type "base table" which is the default.

following bash code deletes the views first and then all the rest

#!/usr/bin/env bash

PGDB="yourDB"
# By exporting user & pass your dont need to interactively type them on execution
export PGUSER="PGusername"
export PGPASSWORD="PGpassword"

VIEWS=`psql -d $PGDB -t --command "SELECT string_agg(table_name, ',') FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='public' AND table_type='VIEW'"`
BASETBLS=`psql -d $PGDB -t --command "SELECT string_agg(table_name, ',') FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='public' AND table_type='BASE TABLE'"`

echo Dropping views:${VIEWS}
psql $PGDB --command "DROP VIEW IF EXISTS ${VIEWS} CASCADE"
echo Dropping tables:${BASETBLS}
psql $PGDB --command "DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ${BASETBLS} CASCADE"

Using PSQL with \gexec

This is a far more comprehensive query then the ones thus far, as it will work with special table names.

SELECT FORMAT('DROP TABLE %I.%I.%I CASCADE;', table_catalog, table_schema, table_name)
FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_type = 'BASE TABLE'
  AND table_schema <> 'information_schema'
  AND table_schema NOT LIKE 'pg_%';

You can preview the commands to be run, and you can execute the output of this query by typing \gexec after you run it in psql.

NOTE: The use of CASCADE will drop all things (like VIEWs) that depend on the table

well, since I like working from the command line...

psql -U <user> -d <mydb> -c '\dt' | cut -d ' ' -f 4 | sed -e "s/^/drop table if exists /" | sed -e "s/$/;/"

-c '\dt' will invoke the list tables command.

               List of relations
 Schema |       Name        | Type  |  Owner
--------+-------------------+-------+----------
 public | _d_psidxddlparm   | table | djuser
 public | _d_psindexdefn    | table | djuser

cut -d ' ' -f 4 now, pipe its output to grab the 4th field (when using space as separator), which is the table.

sed is then used to prefix a drop table and suffix the ; command separator.

| egrep '_d_' - Pipe it into grep some more and you can be more selective about which tables you drop.

drop table if exists _d_psidxddlparm;
drop table if exists _d_psindexdefn;

Note: as written, this will generate bogus rows for the \dt commands output of column headers and total rows at the end. I avoid that by grepping, but you could use head and tail.

The easiest way is to drop the public schema as others have suggested in previous answers. However, this is NOT a good way. You never know what has been done to the public schema that has since been forgotten and was not documented. You also don't know if this will work the same into the future. In V9, it would have been fine, but in V10 all your users would loose access to the schema, and must be granted access again otherwise your application will break. I haven't checked V11, but the point is that you never know what will break as you move from machine to machine, site to site or version to version. It also cannot be done if you are a user that has access to the database, but not to the schema.

If you need to do this programmatically then other answers above cover this, but one thing the answers above don't consider is to get Postgres to do the work for you. If you use pg_dump with the -c option as below:

sudo su postgres -c "pg_dump -U postgres WhateverDB -c -f "/home/Anyone/DBBackupWhateverDB-ServerUnscheduled.sql""

That will create a DB restore script with sql statements that will delete all the tables.

If the only purpose in asking the question was to delete the tables prior to restore, then your restore will do the work for you.

However, if you need it for something else, you can simply copy the drop statements from the sql script.

A terminal based approach using psql worked best for me. I even created a bash function because it is convenient for development:

psqlDropTables() {
    PGPASSWORD=<your password>
    PGTABLE=<your table name>
    PGUSER=<your pg user name>
    PGPASSWORD=$PGPASSWORD psql -ah 127.0.0.1 $PGTABLE $PGUSER -c "
      SELECT
'DROP TABLE IF EXISTS \"' || tablename || '\" CASCADE;' from
pg_tables WHERE schemaname = 'public';" | grep DROP | awk 'NR>1{print $0}' | sed "s/\"/'/g" | PGPASSWORD=$PGPASSWORD xargs -i  psql -ah 127.0.0.1 $PGTABLE $PGUSER -c {}
}

It creates all the required drop table statements as stated in this response, replaces the " with ' and runs them on the DB.

DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE;

CREATE SCHEMA public;

Here's the ready-made query for you:

SELECT

'drop table if exists "' || tablename || '" cascade;' as pg_drop

FROM

pg_tables

WHERE

schemaname='your schema';

Maybe the simplest way is:

1. Drop database contains that tables with:

   drop database DATABASE_NAME;

2. Recreate that database:

   create database DATABASE_NAME;

for macOS. If you have a terminal via PostgreSQL application, a simple command can help you:

drop table "organisations" cascade;