# DROP STREAM statement in ksqlDB for Confluent Platform ## Synopsis ```sql DROP STREAM [IF EXISTS] stream_name [DELETE TOPIC]; ``` ## Description Drops an existing stream. If the DELETE TOPIC clause is present, the stream’s source topic is marked for deletion. If the topic format is `AVRO`, `PROTOBUF`, or `JSON_SR`, the corresponding schema is deleted. Topic deletion is asynchronous, and actual removal from brokers may take some time to complete. #### NOTE DELETE TOPIC will not necessarily work if your Kafka cluster is configured to create topics automatically with `auto.create.topics.enable=true`. You should check after a few minutes to ensure that the topic was deleted. If the IF EXISTS clause is present, the statement doesn’t fail if the stream doesn’t exist.