How to drop multiple databases in SQL Server

Question

Just to clarify, ths isn\'t really a question, more some help for people like me who were looking for an answer.
A lot of applications create temp tables and the like, b

Answer 1

There is no need to use a cursor, and no need to copy and paste SQL statements. Just run these two lines:

DECLARE @Sql as NVARCHAR(MAX) = (SELECT 'DROP DATABASE ['+ name + ']; ' FROM sys.databases WHERE name LIKE 'DBName%' FOR XML PATH(''))

EXEC sys.sp_executesql @Sql

Of course, any DB matching the criteria will be dropped immediately, so be sure that you know what you are doing.

Answer 2

Why not just do this instead?

USE master;
Go
SELECT 'DROP DATABASE ['+ name + ']' 
FROM sys.databases WHERE name like '_database_name_%';
GO

Capture the output of that resultset and then paste it into another query window. Then run that. Why write all this TSQL cursor code?

"When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail!"..

Answer 3

this is easy...

use master
go
declare @dbnames nvarchar(max)
declare @statement nvarchar(max)
set @dbnames = ''
set @statement = ''
select @dbnames = @dbnames + ',[' + name + ']' from sys.databases where name like 'name.of.db%'
if len(@dbnames) = 0
    begin
    print 'no databases to drop'
    end
else
    begin
    set @statement = 'drop database ' + substring(@dbnames, 2, len(@dbnames))
    print @statement
    exec sp_executesql @statement
    end