# CrateDB drop column not working and throwing an error

**URL:** <https://community.cratedb.com/t/cratedb-drop-column-not-working-and-throwing-an-error/1220>\
**Category:** CrateDB\
**Created:** [September 19, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://community.cratedb.com/t/cratedb-drop-column-not-working-and-throwing-an-error/1220 "2022-09-19T16:44:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arafaraf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.cratedb.com/arafaraf/32/540_2.png) [@arafaraf](https://community.cratedb.com/u/arafaraf)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://community.cratedb.com/t/cratedb-drop-column-not-working-and-throwing-an-error/1220/1 "2022-09-19T16:44:29Z")

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Hello so I have a cratedb database instance with about 3 million records in my table. I am trying to run the following command.

```auto
ALTER TABLE "transactions_v2" DROP COLUMN "itemPrices";

```

However I end up with this error

```auto
Error!

SQLParseException[line 1:62: mismatched input 'COLUMN' expecting {'.', 'PARTITION', 'DROP'}]

```

Any ideas why I can’t seem to drop the column?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![proddata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.cratedb.com/proddata/32/1379_2.png) [@proddata](https://community.cratedb.com/u/proddata)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://community.cratedb.com/t/cratedb-drop-column-not-working-and-throwing-an-error/1220/2 "2022-09-19T19:43:53Z")

</div>

Hi @arafaraf

CrateDB currently does not support dropping columns from a table.

* * *

_Also see:_

> <https://github.com/crate/crate/issues/4457>
>
> \*\*Use case\*\*: Removing columns that aren't needed any more or to allow removal o…f columns that were accidentally added.
> 
> New columns could be added very easily, typos for example:
> 
> \`\`\`
> UPDATE mytable SET someMispelledColumn = ?
> \`\`\`
> 
> \*\*Feature description\*\*: Allow us to drop columns using the ALTER command, so for example:
> 
> \`\`\`
> ALTER TABLE mytable DROP COLUMN mycolumn;
> \`\`\`

> **[SQL compatibility](https://crate.io/docs/crate/reference/en/5.0/appendices/compatibility.html#alter-table)**
>
> CrateDB provides a standards-based SQL implementation similar to many other SQL databases. In particular, CrateDB aims for compatibility with Postg...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arafaraf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.cratedb.com/arafaraf/32/540_2.png) [@arafaraf](https://community.cratedb.com/u/arafaraf)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://community.cratedb.com/t/cratedb-drop-column-not-working-and-throwing-an-error/1220/3 "2022-09-20T17:42:20Z")

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Just read through the docs. Thank you for your answer.