Getting a syntax error when executing SQL statement

Question

I have the following method that drops the database but I get a syntax error and I dont know what is going on.

public void deleteDB(){
    try{
        Statement s = conn.createStatement();
        System.out.println("Deleteting database...");
        s.execute("DROP DATABASE Courses");
        System.out.println("Database deleted.");
    }
    catch(SQLException error){
        System.err.println("Unable to delete database.");
        error.printStackTrace(System.err);
        System.exit(0);
    }
}

I call the method with:

UpdateDB update = new UpdateDB();
update.connectDatabase(dbName);
update.deleteDB();

I get this error:

java.sql.SQLSyntaxErrorException: Syntax error: Encountered "DATABASE" at line 1, column 6.
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.SQLExceptionFactory40.getSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.Util.generateCsSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.TransactionResourceImpl.wrapInSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.TransactionResourceImpl.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedConnection.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.ConnectionChild.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedStatement.execute(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedStatement.execute(Unknown Source)

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Do you have a database called courses? or a table named courses?

according to this: http://db.apache.org/derby/docs/10.0/manuals/develop/develop13.html

There is no drop database command. To drop a database, delete the database directory with operating system commands.