Basic Oracle Concepts and Programming Question:

If a tablespace is dropped, what happens to its data files? By default, data files will remain in OS file system, even if the tablespace they are mapped is dropped. Of course, you delete the data files using OS commands, if they are no longer needed.

Another way of deleting data files is to use the INCLUDING clause in the DROP TABLESPACE statement. Here is a SQL sample script:

SQL> CREATE TABLESPACE my_space
2 DATAFILE '/temp/my_space.dbf' SIZE 10M;
Tablespace created.

SQL> DROP TABLESPACE my_space INCLUDING CONTENTS
2 AND DATAFILES;
Tablespace dropped.

With the INCLUDING CONTENTS AND DATAFILES clause, all contents and mapped data files are also deleted.