DROP Statement

Drops a DBMS column so that it cannot be selected in a view descriptor.

Type: Optional statement
Applies to: access descriptor

Syntax

DROP <"> column-identifier-1<"> <...<"> column-identifier-n<"> > ;

Details

The DROP statement drops the specified DBMS column from an access descriptor. The column therefore cannot be selected by a view descriptor that is based on the access descriptor. However, the specified column in the DBMS table remains unaffected by this statement.
The column-identifier argument can be either the CA-Datacom/DB field name or the positional equivalent from the LIST statement, which is the number that represents the column's place in the access descriptor. For example, to drop the third and fifth columns, submit the following statement:
drop 3 5;
If the column name contains special characters or national characters, enclose the name in quotation marks. You can drop as many columns as you want in one DROP statement.
To display a column that was previously dropped, specify the column name in the RESET statement. However, doing so also resets all of the column's attributes (such as SAS column name, format, and so on) to their default values.