[GitHub] [iceberg] kbendick commented on a diff in pull request #4746: Docs: Add syntax description for deleting empty tables

[GitBox <gi...@apache.org>]

kbendick commented on code in PR #4746:
URL: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4746#discussion_r870634655


##########
docs/spark/spark-ddl.md:
##########
@@ -134,6 +134,11 @@ To delete a table, run:
 DROP TABLE prod.db.sample
 ```
 
+To delete an empty table use `PURGE`, run:
+
+```sql
+DROP TABLE prod.db.sample PURGE
+```

Review Comment:
   Nit: I understand what you mean, but i think the saying "to delete an empty table" might be somewhat confusiong for relatively new users.
   
   We should try to provide a little bit more context on the problem you're mentioning, as well as simply document `PURGE`.
   
   How about something like the following?
   
   ```
   To  delete a table as well as its underlying data, use the `PURGE` flag. 
   
   The `PURGE` flag can also be used to remove an empty table from its corresponding catalog if the table's metadata files have been removed by some other process.
   ```
   
   Not sure the best wording for the second statement (or if the second statement is most relevant here).
   
   Tagging @samredai for his thoughts.



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