Web/API/IDBObjectStore/deleteIndex

The deleteIndex() method of the IDBObjectStore interface destroys the index with the specified name in the connected database, used during a version upgrade.

Note that this method must be called only from a VersionChange transaction mode callback. Note that this method synchronously modifies the IDBObjectStore.indexNames property.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.

Syntax

objectStore.deleteIndex(indexName);

Parameters

indexName: The name of the existing index to remove.

Return value

undefined

Exceptions

This method may raise a DOMException of one of the following types:

Exception	Description
`InvalidStateError`	Occurs if the method was not called from a `versionchange` transaction mode callback.
`TransactionInactiveError`	Occurs if the transaction this `IDBObjectStore` belongs to is not active (e.g. has been deleted or removed.) In Firefox previous to version 41, an `InvalidStateError` was raised in this case as well, which was misleading; this has now been fixed (see bug 1176165.)
`NotFoundError`	Occurs if there is no index with the given name (case-sensitive) in the database.

Example

In the following example you can see the IDBOpenDBRequest.onupgradeneeded handler being used to update the database structure if a database with a higher version number is loaded. IDBObjectStore.createIndex is used to create new indexes on the object store, after which we delete the unneeded old indexes with deleteIndex(). For a full working example, see our To-do Notifications app ([[../../../../../../../mdn.github.io/to-do-notifications/index|view example live]].)

var db;

// Let us open our database
var DBOpenRequest = window.indexedDB.open("toDoList", 4);

// these two event handlers act on the database being opened successfully, or not
DBOpenRequest.onerror = function(event) {
  note.innerHTML += '<li>Error loading database.</li>';
};

DBOpenRequest.onsuccess = function(event) {
  note.innerHTML += '<li>Database initialised.</li>';
 
  // store the result of opening the database in the db variable. This is used a lot below
  db = this.result;
 
  // Run the displayData() function to populate the task list with all the to-do list data already in the IDB
  displayData();
};

// This event handles the event whereby a new version of the database needs to be created
// Either one has not been created before, or a new version number has been submitted via the
// window.indexedDB.open line above
//it is only implemented in recent browsers
DBOpenRequest.onupgradeneeded = function(event) {
  var db = this.result;
 
  db.onerror = function(event) {
    note.innerHTML += '<li>Error loading database.</li>';
  };

  // Create an objectStore for this database   
  var objectStore = db.createObjectStore("toDoList", { keyPath: "taskTitle" });

  // define what data items the objectStore will contain
    
  objectStore.createIndex("hours", "hours", { unique: false });
  objectStore.createIndex("minutes", "minutes", { unique: false });
  objectStore.createIndex("day", "day", { unique: false });
  objectStore.createIndex("month", "month", { unique: false });
  objectStore.createIndex("year", "year", { unique: false });
  objectStore.createIndex("notified", "notified", { unique: false });

  objectStore.deleteIndex("seconds");
  objectStore.deleteIndex("contact");

};

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Indexed Database API 2.0The definition of 'deleteIndex()' in that specification.	Recommendation
Indexed Database API DraftThe definition of 'deleteIndex()' in that specification.	Recommendation

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`deleteIndex`	Chrome Full support 24 Full support 24 No support 23 — 57 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 16 Full support 16 No support 10 — 16 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: moz	IE Partial support 10	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 7	WebView Android Full support Yes Full support Yes No support ? — 57 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Chrome Android Full support 25 Full support 25 No support 25 — 57 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit	Firefox Android Full support 22	Opera Android Full support 14	Safari iOS Full support 8	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.5 Full support 1.5 No support 1.5 — 7.0 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: webkit

Legend

Full support: Full support
Partial support: Partial support
Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.': Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.