Tutorials References Exercises Videos Menu
Create Website Get Certified Upgrade

MySQL Tutorial

MySQL HOME MySQL Intro MySQL RDBMS

MySQL SQL

MySQL SQL MySQL SELECT MySQL WHERE MySQL AND, OR, NOT MySQL ORDER BY MySQL INSERT INTO MySQL NULL Values MySQL UPDATE MySQL DELETE MySQL LIMIT MySQL MIN and MAX MySQL COUNT, AVG, SUM MySQL LIKE MySQL Wildcards MySQL IN MySQL BETWEEN MySQL Aliases MySQL Joins MySQL INNER JOIN MySQL LEFT JOIN MySQL RIGHT JOIN MySQL CROSS JOIN MySQL Self Join MySQL UNION MySQL GROUP BY MySQL HAVING MySQL EXISTS MySQL ANY, ALL MySQL INSERT SELECT MySQL CASE MySQL Null Functions MySQL Comments MySQL Operators

MySQL Database

MySQL Create DB MySQL Drop DB MySQL Create Table MySQL Drop Table MySQL Alter Table MySQL Constraints MySQL Not Null MySQL Unique MySQL Primary Key MySQL Foreign Key MySQL Check MySQL Default MySQL Create Index MySQL Auto Increment MySQL Dates MySQL Views

MySQL References

MySQL Data Types MySQL Functions

MySQL Examples

MySQL Examples MySQL Quiz MySQL Exercises MySQL Certificate

MySQL DELETE Statement


The MySQL DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement is used to delete existing records in a table.

DELETE Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name WHERE condition;

Note: Be careful when deleting records in a table! Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE statement. The WHERE clause specifies which record(s) should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records in the table will be deleted!


Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table in the Northwind sample database:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country
1

Alfreds Futterkiste Maria Anders Obere Str. 57 Berlin 12209 Germany
2 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados Ana Trujillo Avda. de la Constitución 2222 México D.F. 05021 Mexico
3 Antonio Moreno Taquería Antonio Moreno Mataderos 2312 México D.F. 05023 Mexico
4

Around the Horn Thomas Hardy 120 Hanover Sq. London WA1 1DP UK
5 Berglunds snabbköp Christina Berglund Berguvsvägen 8 Luleå S-958 22 Sweden


SQL DELETE Example

The following SQL statement deletes the customer "Alfreds Futterkiste" from the "Customers" table:

Example

DELETE FROM Customers WHERE CustomerName='Alfreds Futterkiste';

The "Customers" table will now look like this:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country
2 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados Ana Trujillo Avda. de la Constitución 2222 México D.F. 05021 Mexico
3 Antonio Moreno Taquería Antonio Moreno Mataderos 2312 México D.F. 05023 Mexico
4

Around the Horn Thomas Hardy 120 Hanover Sq. London WA1 1DP UK
5 Berglunds snabbköp Christina Berglund Berguvsvägen 8 Luleå S-958 22 Sweden

Delete All Records

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This means that the table structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:

DELETE FROM table_name;

The following SQL statement deletes all rows in the "Customers" table, without deleting the table:

Example

DELETE FROM Customers;

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Delete all the records from the Customers table where the Country value is 'Norway'.

 Customers
 Country = 'Norway';

Start the Exercise