How to drop the oracle database

This post, we will discuss how to drop the oracle database. The below procedure drops the spfile also but it does not touch Oracle Home. You may want to backup the spfile before dropping the database

sqlplus / as sysdba
startup mount (If database not started)
create pfile='/tmp/pfile.ora' from spfile;

Now follow the below procedure to drop the database

1. Source the environment

$. oraenv
[ORACLE_SID]? TEST
or
export ORACLE_SID=TEST
export ORACLE_HOME=<ORACLE_HOME PATH>

2- Connect as sysdba

$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL*Plus: Release 12.2.0.1.0 Production on Mon Dec 1 17:38:02 2014
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Connected to an idle instance.

3- Start The database

SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 134045184 bytes
Fixed Size 2217952 bytes
Variable Size 142871862 bytes
Database Buffers 129317222 bytes
Redo Buffers 16343040 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.

4- Shutdown the database

SQL> shutdown immediate;
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.

5- Start in Exclusive mode

SQL> startup mount exclusive restrict
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 134045184 bytes
Fixed Size 2217952 bytes
Variable Size 142871862 bytes
Database Buffers 129317222 bytes
Redo Buffers 16343040 bytes
Database mounted.

6- Drop the database

SQL> drop database;
Database dropped.
Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 12.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
SQL>

This completes dropping the database.