Skip to content

DELETE

Description

DELETE statement removes rows from a single table or multiple tables.

Syntax

Single-Table Syntax

DELETE FROM tbl_name [[AS] tbl_alias]
    [WHERE where_condition]
    [ORDER BY ...]
    [LIMIT row_count]

The DELETE statement deletes rows from tbl_name and returns the number of deleted rows.

Explanations

  • The conditions in the optional WHERE clause identify which rows to delete. With no WHERE clause, all rows are deleted.
  • If the ORDER BY clause is specified, the rows are deleted in the order that is specified. -The LIMIT clause places a limit on the number of rows that can be deleted.

Examples

  • Single-Table Examples
CREATE TABLE t1 (a bigint(3), b bigint(5) primary key);
insert INTO t1 VALUES (1,1),(1,2);
delete from t1 where a=1 limit 1;

mysql> select * from t1;
+------+------+
| a    | b    |
+------+------+
|    1 |    2 |
+------+------+
  • Multiple-Table Examples

Multiple-table join Syntax is also supported.

drop table if exists t1;
drop table if exists t2;
create table t1 (a int);
insert into t1 values(1), (2), (4);
create table t2 (b int);
insert into t2 values(1), (2), (5);
delete t1 from t1 join t2 where t1.a = 2;

mysql> select * from t1;
+------+
| a    |
+------+
|    1 |
|    4 |
+------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

drop database if exists db1;
drop database if exists db2;
create database db1;
create database db2;
use db2;
drop table if exists t1;
create table t1 (a int);
insert into t1 values (1),(2),(4);
use db1;
drop table if exists t2;
create table t2 (b int);
insert into t2 values(1),(2),(3);
delete from db1.t2, db2.t1 using db1.t2 join db2.t1 on db1.t2.b = db2.t1.a where 2 > 1;

mysql> select * from db1.t2;
+------+
| b    |
+------+
|    3 |
+------+
mysql> select * from db2.t1;
+------+
| a    |
+------+
|    4 |
+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)