Documentation Source Text

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Section DELETE delete {DELETE *DELETEs}

BubbleDiagram delete-stmt 1
BubbleDiagram qualified-table-name
</tcl>

<p>^The DELETE command is used to remove records from a table.
^The command consists of the "DELETE FROM" keywords followed by
the name of the table from which records are to be removed.
</p>

<p>^Without a WHERE clause, all rows of the table are removed.

^If a WHERE clause is supplied, then only those rows that match
the expression are removed.</p>



<h3>Restrictions on DELETE Statements Within CREATE TRIGGER</h3>

<p>^There are additional syntax restrictions on DELETE statements that

occur within the body of a [CREATE TRIGGER] statement.  ^The <i>table-name</i>



must be unqualified. 
^(In other words, the <i>database-name</i><b>.</b> prefix
on the table name is not allowed within triggers. )^
^The table from which to delete must be in the same
database as the table to which the trigger is attached.</p>








<p>^The INDEXED BY and NOT INDEXED clauses are not allowed on DELETE
statements within triggers.</p>

<p>^The LIMIT clause (described below) is unsupported within triggers.</p>








































<tcl>hd_fragment truncateopt {truncate optimization}</tcl>
<h3>The Truncate Optimization</h3>

<p>^When the WHERE is omitted from a DELETE statement and the table
being deleted has no triggers,
SQLite uses an optimization to erase the entire table content
................................................................................

<p>The truncate optimization can also be disabled at runtime using
the [sqlite3_set_authorizer()] interface.  ^If an authorizer callback
returns [SQLITE_IGNORE] for an [SQLITE_DELETE] action code, then
the DELETE operation will proceed but the truncate optimization will
be bypassed and rows will be deleted one by one.</p>

<h3>Use Of LIMIT</h3>

<p>^(If SQLite is compiled with the [SQLITE_ENABLE_UPDATE_DELETE_LIMIT]
compile-time option, then the syntax of the DELETE statement is
extended by the addition of optional ORDER BY and LIMIT clauses:)^</p>

<tcl>BubbleDiagram delete-stmt-limited</tcl>

<p>^The optional LIMIT clause can be used to limit the number of
rows deleted, and thereby limit the size of the transaction.
^The ORDER BY clause on a DELETE statement
is used only to determine which rows fall
within the LIMIT.  ^The order in which rows are deleted is arbitrary
and is not determined by the ORDER BY clause.</p>

<p>^The presence of a LIMIT clause defeats the truncate optimization
causing all rows being deleted to be visited.</p>

<tcl>
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Section {DETACH DATABASE} detach *DETACH

BubbleDiagram detach-stmt 1
</tcl>

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Section DELETE delete {DELETE *DELETEs}

BubbleDiagram delete-stmt 1
BubbleDiagram qualified-table-name
</tcl>

<p>The DELETE command removes records from the table identified by the
   <i>qualified-table-name</i>. 




<p>^If the WHERE clause is not present, all records in the table are deleted.
   ^(If a WHERE clause is supplied, then only those rows for which evaluating

   the WHERE clause and casting the result to a NUMERIC value produces a 
   result other than NULL or zero (integer value 0 or real value 0.0).)^

<h3>Restrictions on DELETE Statements Within CREATE TRIGGER</h3>


<p>The following restrictions apply to DELETE statements that occur within the
   body of a [CREATE TRIGGER] statement:

<ul>
  <li><p>^The <i>table-name</i> specified as part of a DELETE statement within
    a trigger body must be unqualified.  ^(In other words, the
    <i>database-name</i><b>.</b> prefix on the table name is not allowed 


    within triggers.)^ ^If the table to which the trigger is attached is
    not in the temp database, then DELETE statements within the trigger
    body must operate on tables within the same database as it. ^If the table
    to which the trigger is attached is in the TEMP database, then the
    unqualified name of the table being deleted is resolved in the same way as
    it is for a top-level statement (by searching first the TEMP database, then
    the main database, then any other databases in the order they were
    attached).
    
  <li><p>^The INDEXED BY and NOT INDEXED clauses are not allowed on DELETE
    statements within triggers.</p>


  <li><p>^The LIMIT and ORDER BY clauses (described below) are unsupported for
    DELETE statements within triggers.</p>
</ul>

<h3>Optional LIMIT and ORDER BY clauses</h3>

<p>^(If SQLite is compiled with the [SQLITE_ENABLE_UPDATE_DELETE_LIMIT]
compile-time option, then the syntax of the DELETE statement is
extended by the addition of optional ORDER BY and LIMIT clauses:)^</p>

<tcl>BubbleDiagram delete-stmt-limited</tcl>

<p>^If a DELETE statement has a LIMIT clause, the maximum number of rows that
will be deleted is found by evaluating the accompanying expression and casting
it to an integer value. ^If the result of the evaluating the LIMIT clause
cannot be losslessly converted to an integer value, it is an error. ^A 
negative LIMIT value is interpreted as "no limit". ^(If the DELETE statement 
also has an OFFSET clause, then it is similarly evaluated and cast to an
integer value. Again, it is an error if the value cannot be losslessly
converted to an integer.)^ ^If there is no OFFSET clause, or the calculated
integer value is negative, the effective OFFSET value is zero.

<p>^(If the DELETE statement has an ORDER BY clause, then all rows that would 
be deleted in the absence of the LIMIT clause are sorted according to the 
ORDER BY. The first <i>M</i> rows, where <i>M</i> is the value found by
evaluating the OFFSET clause expression, are skipped, and the following 
<i>N</i>, where <i>N</i> is the value of the LIMIT expression, are deleted.)^
^If there are less than <i>N</i> rows remaining after taking the OFFSET clause
into account, or if the LIMIT clause evaluated to a negative value, then all
remaining rows are deleted.

<p>^If the DELETE statement has no ORDER BY clause, then all rows that
would be deleted in the absence of the LIMIT clause are assembled in an
arbitrary order before applying the LIMIT and OFFSET clauses to determine 
the subset that are actually deleted.

<p>^(The ORDER BY clause on an DELETE statement is used only to determine which
rows fall within the LIMIT. The order in which rows are deleted is arbitrary
and is not influenced by the ORDER BY clause.)^

<tcl>hd_fragment truncateopt {truncate optimization}</tcl>
<h3>The Truncate Optimization</h3>

<p>^When the WHERE is omitted from a DELETE statement and the table
being deleted has no triggers,
SQLite uses an optimization to erase the entire table content
................................................................................

<p>The truncate optimization can also be disabled at runtime using
the [sqlite3_set_authorizer()] interface.  ^If an authorizer callback
returns [SQLITE_IGNORE] for an [SQLITE_DELETE] action code, then
the DELETE operation will proceed but the truncate optimization will
be bypassed and rows will be deleted one by one.</p>



















<tcl>
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Section {DETACH DATABASE} detach *DETACH

BubbleDiagram detach-stmt 1
</tcl>