Apache Hive Cookbook

Deleting data

In this recipe, you will learn how to delete data from a table in Hive.

Deleting data from a Hive table is the traditional way of deleting data in a table in any RDBMS. Deleting data in a table can only be performed if the table supports ACID properties.

Note

Deletion is not possible on tables that are created using the SORTED BY clause.

The general format of deleting data in a table is as follows:

DELETE FROM tablename [WHERE expression]

Where:

• tablename: This is the name of the table
• WHERE expression: This is an optional clause. Only rows that match the WHERE clause will be deleted

Getting ready

This recipe requires having Hive installed as described in the Installing Hive recipe of Chapter 1, Developing Hive. You will also need the Hive ...