How to Remove a Column from SharePoint List using PowerShell?
Requirement: User created a calculated column with error in its formula! That caused the list view web part to crash! couldn’t remove the column from SharePoint list using web UI.
How to delete a Column from SharePoint List?
From SharePoint Web UI, to remove a field from a list or library, follow these steps:
- Browse to the List or Library in which you want to remove the column. Click on the List or Library tab.
- Click on List Settings / Library Settings from the Ribbon.
- From the List Settings page, Under the Columns section, click on the name of the column that you wish to delete.
- Scroll down to the bottom and then click on “Delete” button. Confirm the prompt.
PowerShell script to delete the column from SharePoint list
Here is the PowerShell to remove a column from list:
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
#Variables
$SiteURL="http://intranet.crescent.com/"
$ListName="Change Request"
$ColumnName="Activity Status"
#Get Internal Name of the columns
$web = Get-SPWeb $SiteURL
#Get the list
$list = $web.Lists.TryGetList($ListName)
if($List -ne $null)
{
#Get the column
$column = $list.Fields[$ColumnName]
if($column -ne $null)
{
#Reset column properties to allow delete
$column.Hidden = $false
$column.ReadOnlyField = $false
$column.AllowDeletion = $true
$column.Update()
#Delete the column from list
$list.Fields.Delete($column)
write-host "Column has been deleted!" -f Green
}
else
{
write-host "Specified column name not found!" -ForegroundColor Red
}
}
Bulk remove columns from SharePoint list using PowerShell:
To make it reusable, lets wrap the code inside a function and call, to bulk delete columns from SharePoint list.
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
#Custom Function to delete a column with PowerShell
Function Remove-Column($WebURL, $ListName, $ColumnName)
{
#Get Internal Name of the columns
$web = Get-SPWeb $WebURL
#Get the list
$list = $web.Lists.TryGetList($ListName)
if($List -ne $null)
{
#Get the column
$column = $list.Fields[$ColumnName]
if($column -ne $null)
{
#Reset column properties to allow delete
$column.Hidden = $false
$column.ReadOnlyField = $false
$column.AllowDeletion = $true
$column.Update()
#Delete the column from list
$list.Fields.Delete($column)
write-host "Column '$ColumnName' has been deleted!" -f Green
}
else
{
write-host "Specified column name not found!" -ForegroundColor Red
}
}
else
{
write-host "Specified List is not found!" -ForegroundColor Red
}
}
#Variables
$WebURL="http://intranet.crescent.com"
$ListName="Change Request"
#Array to hold column titles
[email protected]("Change Type","Approvers","Proposed Date and Time")
#Process each column
$ColumnNames | foreach {
#Call the function to remove column
Remove-Column $WebURL $ListName $_
}
In some cases, instead of “$Column.Hidden=$False”, You may have to set: “$column.Sealed = $false”
to remove the column from all sites, how can I change the script?
Thanks, works very fine! Nice script.
Hi folks,
Your code is awesome but unfortunately the Update doesn’t work 🙁
Try: $column.Sealed = $false
yup, that works, thanks a lot