SQL Programming
  • Introduction to SQL
  • Data Definition Language
    • DATA TYPES
    • CREATE DATABASE
    • DROP DATABASE
    • CREATE TABLE Statement
    • CONSTRAINTS
      • SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint
      • SQL NOT NULL Constraint
      • SQL UNIQUE Constraint
      • SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint
      • SQL DEFAULT Constraint
      • SQL CHECK Constraint
    • DROP & TRUNCATE TABLE Statement
    • ALTER TABLE Statement
    • AUTO INCREMENT Field
    • SQL SELECT INTO Statement
    • CREATE INDEX
    • DDL Practice Problems
  • Data Manipulation Language
    • INSERT INTO Statement
    • INSERT INTO SELECT Statement
    • DELETE Statement
    • UPDATE Statement
    • DML Practice Problems
  • SQL NULL Values
  • SQL Comments
  • Data Query Language
    • SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement
    • SQL WHERE Clause
      • SQL And, Or, Not (Logical Operators)
      • SQL Wildcards
      • SQL LIKE Operator
      • SQL IN Operator
      • SQL BETWEEN Operator
      • SQL WHERE Exercises
    • SQL TOP CLAUSE
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    • SQL Server Scalar Functions (Non-aggregate)
      • SQL MIN() and MAX()
      • SQL COUNT(), AVG() and SUM() Functions
      • Functions Problems
    • SQL ISNULL Functions
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    • Analytical Function
    • SQL Joins
      • SQL INNER JOIN Keyword
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      • SQL FULL OUTER JOIN Keyword
      • SQL Self JOIN
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    • SQL Subqueries
    • SQL EXISTS Operator
    • SQL ANY and ALL Operators
  • CREATE VIEWS
  • Common Table Expressions (CTE)
  • Data Control Language
  • SQL Stored Procedures for SQL Server
  • Practice Papers
  • SQL PROJECT
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  • The SQL DELETE Statement
  • Demo Database
  • SQL DELETE Example
  • Delete All Records

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  1. Data Manipulation Language

DELETE Statement

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Last updated 6 years ago

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The SQL DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement is used to delete existing records in a table.

DELETE Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name WHERE condition;

Be careful when deleting records in a table! Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE statement. The WHERE clause specifies which record(s) should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records in the table will be deleted!

SQL Server is Auto Commit Database by default o there is no way to retrieve a record if it is deleted or updated once.

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table :

SQL DELETE Example

The following SQL statement deletes the customer "Alfreds Futterkiste" from the "Customers" table:

Example

DELETE FROM Customers WHERE CustomerName='Alfreds Futterkiste';

The "Customers" table will now look like this:

Delete All Records

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This means that the table structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:

DELETE FROM table_name;

The following SQL statement deletes all rows in the "Customers" table, without deleting the table:

Example

DELETE FROM Customers;