DELETE Statement

DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement removes rows from a table.

Basic syntax

DELETE FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName = 'Cardinal';

Deletes only the rows that match the WHERE condition.

BE CAREFUL: DELETE without WHERE

DELETE FROM Customers;

Deletes every row in the table. The table structure stays, but it is empty.

Delete all rows (two ways)

DELETE FROM Customers;

or

TRUNCATE TABLE Customers;

• DELETE removes rows one by one.
• TRUNCATE removes all rows in one go and is faster.

DELETE does NOT drop the table

After DELETE, the table still exists - only its rows are gone.

The safe pattern

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CustomerName = 'Cardinal';  -- check first
DELETE FROM Customers WHERE CustomerName = 'Cardinal';

TL;DR

• DELETE removes rows.
• WHERE decides which rows to remove.
• Without WHERE, all rows are deleted.
• TRUNCATE TABLE empties a table faster.