Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes

Deleting Data

To delete (remove) data from a table, the DELETE statement is used. DELETE can be used in two ways:

• To delete specific rows from a table

• To delete all rows from a table

You'll now take a look at each of these.

Caution

Don't Omit the WHERE Clause Special care must be exercised when using DELETE because it is all too easy to mistakenly delete every row from your table. Please read this entire section on DELETE before using this statement.

Tip

DELETE and Security Use of the DELETE statement might require special security privileges in client-server DBMSs. Before you attempt to use DELETE, make sure you have adequate security privileges to do so.

I already stated that UPDATE is very easy to use. The good (and bad) news is that DELETE ...