Index for Section 5

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DELETE(5)
NAME
  DELETE - delete rows of a table

SYNOPSIS
  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.

       Tip: TRUNCATE [truncate(5)] 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.

Index for Section 5

Alphabetical listing for D

Top of page