MySQL DROP all tables, ignoring foreign keys

Here's a cursor based solution. Kinda lengthy but works as a single SQL batch:

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `drop_all_tables`;

DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE `drop_all_tables`()
BEGIN
    DECLARE _done INT DEFAULT FALSE;
    DECLARE _tableName VARCHAR(255);
    DECLARE _cursor CURSOR FOR
        SELECT table_name 
        FROM information_schema.TABLES
        WHERE table_schema = SCHEMA();
    DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET _done = TRUE;

    OPEN _cursor;

    REPEAT FETCH _cursor INTO _tableName;

    IF NOT _done THEN
        SET @stmt_sql = CONCAT('DROP TABLE ', _tableName);
        PREPARE stmt1 FROM @stmt_sql;
        EXECUTE stmt1;
        DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt1;
    END IF;

    UNTIL _done END REPEAT;

    CLOSE _cursor;

END$$

DELIMITER ;

call drop_all_tables(); 

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `drop_all_tables`;

One-step solution without copying returned value from SQL Select query using procedure.

SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;
SET SESSION group_concat_max_len = 1000000;

SET @TABLES = NULL;
SELECT GROUP_CONCAT('`', table_schema, '`.`', table_name,'`') INTO @TABLES FROM information_schema.tables 
  WHERE table_schema = 'databaseName';

SET @TABLES = CONCAT('DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ', @TABLES);

PREPARE stmt FROM @TABLES;
EXECUTE stmt;
DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;

SET SESSION group_concat_max_len = 1024;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1

Googling on topic always brings me to this SO question so here is working mysql code that deletes BOTH tables and views:

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `drop_all_tables`;

DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE `drop_all_tables`()
BEGIN
    DECLARE _done INT DEFAULT FALSE;
    DECLARE _tableName VARCHAR(255);
    DECLARE _cursor CURSOR FOR
        SELECT table_name
        FROM information_schema.TABLES
        WHERE table_schema = SCHEMA();
    DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET _done = TRUE;

    SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;

    OPEN _cursor;

    REPEAT FETCH _cursor INTO _tableName;

    IF NOT _done THEN
        SET @stmt_sql1 = CONCAT('DROP TABLE IF EXISTS ', _tableName);
        SET @stmt_sql2 = CONCAT('DROP VIEW IF EXISTS ', _tableName);

        PREPARE stmt1 FROM @stmt_sql1;
        PREPARE stmt2 FROM @stmt_sql2;

        EXECUTE stmt1;
        EXECUTE stmt2;

        DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt1;
        DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt2;
    END IF;

    UNTIL _done END REPEAT;

    CLOSE _cursor;
    SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;
END$$

DELIMITER ;

call drop_all_tables();

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `drop_all_tables`;

Drop all the tables from database with a single line from command line:

mysqldump -u [user_name] -p[password] -h [host_name] --add-drop-table --no-data [database_name] | grep ^DROP | mysql -u [user_name] -p[password] -h [host_name] [database_name]

Where [user_name], [password], [host_name] and [database_name] have to be replaced with a real data (user, password, host name, database name).

Just a soft reminder,

If possible & have no other issues, you can drop the database and recreate it.

• drop database <database_name>
• create database <database_name>

Just put here some useful comment made by Jonathan Watt to drop all tables

MYSQL="mysql -h HOST -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD DB_NAME"
$MYSQL -BNe "show tables" | awk '{print "set foreign_key_checks=0; drop table `" $1 "`;"}' | $MYSQL
unset MYSQL

It helps me and I hope it could be useful

Simple and clear (may be).

Might not be a fancy solution, but this worked me and saved my day.

Worked for Server version: 5.6.38 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Steps I followed:

 1. generate drop query using concat and group_concat.
 2. use database
 3. disable key constraint check
 4. copy the query generated from step 1
 5. enable key constraint check
 6. run show table

MySQL shell

mysql> SYSTEM CLEAR;
mysql> SELECT CONCAT('DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `', GROUP_CONCAT(table_name SEPARATOR '`, `'), '`;') AS dropquery FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema = 'emall_duplicate';
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| dropquery                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `admin`, `app`, `app_meta_settings`, `commission`, `commission_history`, `coupon`, `email_templates`, `infopages`, `invoice`, `m_pc_xref`, `member`, `merchant`, `message_templates`, `mnotification`, `mshipping_address`, `notification`, `order`, `orderdetail`, `pattributes`, `pbrand`, `pcategory`, `permissions`, `pfeatures`, `pimage`, `preport`, `product`, `product_review`, `pspecification`, `ptechnical_specification`, `pwishlist`, `role_perms`, `roles`, `settings`, `test`, `testanother`, `user_perms`, `user_roles`, `users`, `wishlist`; |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> USE emall_duplicate;
Database changed
mysql> SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;                                                                                                                                                   Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

// copy and paste generated query from step 1
mysql> DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `admin`, `app`, `app_meta_settings`, `commission`, `commission_history`, `coupon`, `email_templates`, `infopages`, `invoice`, `m_pc_xref`, `member`, `merchant`, `message_templates`, `mnotification`, `mshipping_address`, `notification`, `order`, `orderdetail`, `pattributes`, `pbrand`, `pcategory`, `permissions`, `pfeatures`, `pimage`, `preport`, `product`, `product_review`, `pspecification`, `ptechnical_specification`, `pwishlist`, `role_perms`, `roles`, `settings`, `test`, `testanother`, `user_perms`, `user_roles`, `users`, `wishlist`;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.18 sec)

mysql> SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SHOW tables;
Empty set (0.01 sec)

mysql> 

DB="your database name" \
    && mysql $DB < "SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0" \
    && mysqldump --add-drop-table --no-data $DB | grep 'DROP TABLE' | grep -Ev "^$" | mysql $DB \
    && mysql $DB < "SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1"

All have given good answers, however, I have an alternative option for users familiar with spreadsheet/excel sheets. As per the first solution we get a list of commands but we still need to truncate the first and last characters ('|')

1. With "show tables;" query you will get the list of all tables;

2. Now copy the result and paste it into an excel sheet (assume all records are in column 'A' of excel)

3. At first you need to delete the first and last '|' symbol-function to delete the first character ie. '|'

   =RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)

function to delete the last character ie. '|' and add an ending semicolon

=CONCAT(LEFT(B1,LEN(B1)-1),";")

4. Now create the final query list by using the CONCAT function

   =CONCAT("drop table ",C1)