SQL: Visual QuickStart Guide

Deleting Rows with DELETE

The DELETE statement removes rows from a table. You can use DELETE to remove:

• All rows in a table

• Specific rows in a table

To delete rows, you specify:

• The table whose rows to delete

• An optional search condition that specifies which rows to delete

The important characteristics of DELETE are:

• Unlike INSERT and UPDATE, DELETE takes no column names because it removes entire rows.

• DELETE removes rows from a table, but it never deletes the table’s definition. Even if you remove all rows from a table, the table itself still exists. If you want to delete a table definition (and all its associated data, indexes, and so on), see “Dropping a Table with DROP TABLE” in Chapter 10.

• DELETE takes an optional WHERE clause that specifies ...