DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement removes one or more rows from a table based on a specified condition, while keeping the table's structure intact for future use.

Basic Syntax

DELETE FROM customers
WHERE customer_id = 1;

Deleting All Rows

Omitting the WHERE clause deletes every row in the table, though the table itself still exists afterward:

DELETE FROM customers;

DELETE vs TRUNCATE

DELETE removes rows one at a time and can be filtered with a WHERE clause, while TRUNCATE removes all rows at once and is generally faster, but cannot be filtered.