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slug: /recyclebin-overview
---

# Overview

The recycle bin stores information about deleted databases and tables.

The recycle bin is essentially a data dictionary table that holds information about deleted database objects. After an object is moved to the recycle bin, it still occupies physical space until you manually purge it (using the `PURGE` command) or until the database system automatically deletes it.

## Supported Objects

In the current version, the recycle bin supports storing databases, tables, and indexes.

## Limitations

* Directly deleted indexes are not moved to the recycle bin. When a table is deleted, all indexes on that table are also moved to the recycle bin.

* Directly deleted materialized views or materialized view logs are not moved to the recycle bin. However, when a database is deleted, all materialized views and materialized view logs within that database are moved to the recycle bin.

* The order of flashback operations must follow the dependency hierarchy: Database > Table.

* Directly restoring indexes is not supported. When a table is restored, its indexes are also restored.

* You cannot perform any queries or DML operations on recycle bin objects. DDL operations are limited to Purge and Flashback.

* Objects moved to the recycle bin do not get deleted immediately; they continue to occupy storage space.

## References

For more information about the recycle bin, see the following topics:

* [Enable or Disable the Recycle Bin](../200.recyclebin/200.turn-the-recyclebin-on-or-off.md)

* [View Recycle Bin Objects](../200.recyclebin/300.view-the-recyclebin-objects.md)

* [Restore Recycle Bin Objects](../200.recyclebin/400.restore-the-recyclebin-objects.md)

* [Purge the Recycle Bin](../200.recyclebin/500.purge-the-recyclebin.md)