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 list or library, follow these steps:

Browse to the List or Library in which you want to remove column. click on List or Library tab.
Click on List Settings / Library Settings from the Ribbon.
From the List Settings page, Under 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"

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