Delete
Removes rows from a table.
Synopsis
DELETE FROM [ ONLY ] table [ WHERE condition ]
Parameters
tableThe name of the table from which you are deleting rows.
conditionThe condition that identifies rows to be deleted. This is just like the
WHEREclause of aSELECTquery; refer to the reference entry titled “SELECT” for more information on constructing conditions. Note that not providing aWHEREcondition will cause all rows to be deleted from a table.
Results
DELETE countThe message returned when the command is executed. The count is the number of rows that were removed. If that number is 0,
then either no rows met the specified condition, or there were no rows in the table to be
removed.
Description
Use DELETE to remove rows from a table. Only rows that match a
condition you specify will be deleted. To delete all rows from a table, do not specify a
condition. Issuing a DELETE with no condition results in all rows being
deleted from the target table. You will then be left with an empty table.
Note
Use TRUNCATE to empty a table more efficiently (and explicitly) than
with an unconditional DELETE statement.
Use the ONLY clause to prevent the deletion of rows from tables that
inherit from the target table. ONLY restricts the delete operation to only
the target table. Otherwise, the delete operation will affect not only the target table, but
all tables that inherit from it.
Example
The following ...