PostgreSQL DROP VIEW IF EXISTS

Question

In PostgreSQL when I run the command

DROP VIEW IF EXISTS view_name;

I get the response:

View IF dropped.

Can anyone explain what this means? why the word 'IF' instead of a response like: View view_name dropped ?

Answer 1

That's not what PostgreSQL does. Demo:

postgres=# create view view_name as select 1;
CREATE VIEW

postgres=# drop view if exists view_name;
DROP VIEW

postgres=# \echo :SERVER_VERSION_NUM
110002

postgres=# drop view if exists view_name;
NOTICE:  view "view_name" does not exist, skipping
DROP VIEW

Possibly you're not using PostgreSQL proper, but rather a fork that has a different syntax for this operation. Check out the result of SELECT version();.