ORACLE - Clearing Out the Recycle Bin in 10g

I was trying to delete a group of tables in a 10.2.0.3 database and I noticed that the table count didn't decrease after the drop statements. Then I remembered the flashback recovery feature and figured I'd better check the names of the existing tables to see if they had been logically moved to a recycle bin that I'd heard about.

Well my next question was, "How do I clear the recycle bin?", and here's what I found:

PURGE RECYCLEBIN;

This clears everything in your recycle bin.

If you want to bypass the recycle bin in the original drop, you can use a statement like:

DROP TABLE RECYCLETEST PURGE;

For more tips about Flashback table and the recycle bin go to:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/10gdba/week5_10gdba.html

I'll meet you further on up the road.

Jim Hill