DELETE
SQL - Language Statements
DELETE
delete rows of a table
DELETE
DELETE FROM [ ONLY ] table [ WHERE condition ]
Description
DELETE deletes rows that satisfy the
WHERE clause from the specified table. If the
WHERE clause is absent, the effect is to delete
all rows in the table. The result is a valid, but empty table.
is a
PostgreSQL extension which provides a
faster mechanism to remove all rows from a table.
By default, DELETE will delete rows in the
specified table and all its subtables. If you wish to only delete
from the specific table mentioned, you must use the
ONLY clause.
You must have the DELETE privilege on the table
to delete from it, as well as the SELECT
privilege for any table whose values are read in the condition.
Parameters
table
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.
condition
A value expression that returns a value of type
boolean that determines the rows which are to be
deleted.
Outputs
On successful completion, a DELETE> command returns a command
tag of the form
DELETE count
The count is the number
of rows deleted. If count is
0, no rows matched the condition (this is not considered
an error).
Examples
Delete all films but musicals:
DELETE FROM films WHERE kind <> 'Musical';
Clear the table films:
DELETE FROM films;
Compatibility
This command conforms to the SQL standard.