Reference
Version · 6.0
Change Automation Reference

dropIndex

Last updated: August 12, 2026

The dropIndex Change Type drops an existing index on a column.

Uses

You can typically use the dropIndex Change Type when you want to remove the specific index that identifies records in your database.

Once an index has been dropped, all metadata is removed. The index can’t be rebuilt and you must create it again. Also, if you drop a clustered index, the table will lose its identifiers.

Running the `dropIndex` Change Type

To run this Change Type, follow these steps:

Add the Change Type to your changeset, as shown in the examples on this page.
Specify any required attributes. Use the table on this page to see which ones your database requires.
Deploy your changeset by running the update command:liquibase update

Available attributes

Name	Description	Required for	Supports	Since
`catalogName`	Name of the catalog		all	3.0
`indexName`	Name of the index	all	all
`schemaName`	Name of the schema		all
`tableName`	Name of the table that is indexed	asany, mariadb, mssql, mysql, sybase	all

Database support

Database	Notes	Auto Rollback
DB2/LUW	Supported	No
DB2/z	Supported	No
Derby	Supported	No
Firebird	Supported	No
Google BigQuery	Supported	No
H2	Supported	No
HyperSQL	Supported	No
INGRES	Supported	No
Informix	Supported	No
MariaDB	Supported	No
MySQL	Supported	No
Oracle	Supported	No
PostgreSQL	Supported	No
Snowflake	Not Supported	No
SQL Server	Supported	No
SQLite	Supported	No
Sybase	Supported	No
Sybase Anywhere	Supported	No

dropIndex examples

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset liquibase-docs:dropIndex-example
DROP INDEX idx_address ON public.person;

databaseChangeLog:
-  changeSet:
    id:  dropIndex-example
    author:  liquibase-docs
    changes:
    -  dropIndex:
        indexName:  idx_address
        schemaName:  public
        tableName:  person

{
    "databaseChangeLog": [
        {
            "changeSet": {
                "id": "dropIndex-example",
                "author": "liquibase-docs",
                "changes": [
                    {
                        "dropIndex": {
                            "indexName": "idx_address",
                            "schemaName": "public",
                            "tableName": "person"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
    xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">

    <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="dropIndex-example">
        <dropIndex indexName="idx_address"
            schemaName="public"
            tableName="person"/>  
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset liquibase-docs:dropIndex-example
DROP INDEX idx_address ON public.person;

databaseChangeLog:
-  changeSet:
    id:  dropIndex-example
    author:  liquibase-docs
    changes:
    -  dropIndex:
        indexName:  idx_address
        schemaName:  public
        tableName:  person

{
    "databaseChangeLog": [
        {
            "changeSet": {
                "id": "dropIndex-example",
                "author": "liquibase-docs",
                "changes": [
                    {
                        "dropIndex": {
                            "indexName": "idx_address",
                            "schemaName": "public",
                            "tableName": "person"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
    xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">

    <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="dropIndex-example">
        <dropIndex indexName="idx_address"
            schemaName="public"
            tableName="person"/>  
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

PreviousDropFunction NextDropPackage

dropIndex

Uses

Running the dropIndex Change Type

Available attributes

Database support

dropIndex examples

SQL example

YAML example

JSON example

XML example

Running the `dropIndex` Change Type