Oracle DROP ROLE

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Oracle DROP ROLE statement to remove a role from the database.

Oracle DROP ROLE statement overview

The DROP ROLE statement allows you to remove a role from the database. Here is the syntax of the DROP ROLE statement:

DROP ROLE role_name;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this syntax, you specify the name of the role that you want to drop after the DROP ROLE keywords.

When you drop a role, Oracle revokes it from all users and roles that have been previously granted. In addition, Oracle deletes the role from the database.

To drop a role, you must have the DROP ANY ROLE system privilege or have been granted the role with the ADMIN OPTION.

Oracle DROP ROLE examples

Let’s take some examples of using the DROP ROLE statement

1) Oracle DROP ROLE statement basic example

First, log in to the Oracle Database using the ot account.

Enter user-name: ot@pdborcl as sysdba
Enter password: <ot_password>
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Next, create a new role called developer:

CREATE ROLE developer;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Then, very if the role has been created successfully:

SELECT * from dba_roles 
WHERE role = 'DEVELOPER';
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

After that, drop the developer role:

DROP ROLE developer;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Finally, check if the role has been dropped:

SELECT * from dba_roles 
WHERE role = 'DEVELOPER';
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Oracle issued the following message indicating that the role developer has been removed successfully:

no rows selected
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

2) Oracle DROP ROLE statement basic example

First, log in as ot user:

Enter user-name: ot@pdborcl as sysdba
Enter password: <ot_password>
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Second, create a new role called auditor and grant the SELECT object privilege on the orders table in the sample database:

CREATE ROLE auditor;
GRANT SELECT ON orders TO auditor;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Third, create a new user named audi, grant the CREATE SESSION system privilege and the auditor role to audi:

CREATE USER audi IDENTIFIED BY Abcd1234;
GRANT CREATE SESSION TO auditor;
GRANT auditor TO audi;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Fourth, log in to the Oracle database as the audi user in the second session and issue the following command:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ot.orders;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the output:

  COUNT(*)
----------
   105
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Query role of the audi user:

SELECT * FROM session_roles;    
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the role of the user audi:

ROLE
------
AUDITOR
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Fifth, go back to the first session and drop the role auditor:

DROP ROLE auditor;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Sixth, go to the second session and check the roles of the user audi and issues the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM session_roles;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The following shows the output:

no rows selected
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

It means that the audit role has been revoked from the user audi.

Seventh, from the audi’s session, try to execute the following query to verify if the role has been revoked completely:

SELECT * FROM ot.orders;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Oracle issued this output:

no rows selected
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Now user audi couldn’t query data from the ot.orders anymore.

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use Oracle DROP ROLE statement to delete a role from the database.