The DROP statement drops the specified column(s) from a descriptor. You can drop a column when creating or updating an access descriptor; you can also drop a column when updating a view descriptor. If you drop a column when creating an access descriptor, you cannot select that column when creating a view descriptor that is based on the access descriptor. The underlying DBMS table is unaffected by this statement.

To display a column that was previously dropped, specify that column name in the RESET statement. However, doing so also resets all column attributes (such as the SAS variable name and format) to their default values.