SQL DELETE Keyword

The SQL DELETE keyword is used to delete the existing records from a table. The SQL WHERE clause can be used with the DELETE statement to delete the selected rows, otherwise all records will be deleted.

Syntax

The syntax for using DELETE keyword is given below:

DELETE table_name
WHERE condition(s);

Example:

Consider a database containing a table called Employee with the following records:

• To delete the records of an employee whose EmpID is 5, the SQL query is:

  DELETE FROM Employee
  WHERE EmpID = 5;
  
  --See the result
  SELECT * FROM Employee
  

  
  

  Now the Employee table will contain following records:

  EmpID	Name	City	Age	Salary
  1	John	London	25	3000
  2	Marry	New York	24	2750
  3	Jo	Paris	27	2800
  4	Kim	Amsterdam	30	3100
  6	Huang	Beijing	28	2800

• Similarly, to delete the records of an employee where city starts with 'New', the SQL query is:

  DELETE FROM Employee
  WHERE City LIKE 'New%';
  
  -- see the result
  SELECT * from Employee;
  

  
  

  Now the Employee table will contain following records:

  EmpID	Name	City	Age	Salary
  1	John	London	25	3000
  3	Jo	Paris	27	2800
  4	Kim	Amsterdam	30	3100
  6	Huang	Beijing	28	2800

  
  

  In MS Access, the same can be achieved using below query:

  /* MS Access SQL code */
  DELETE FROM Employee
  WHERE City LIKE 'New*';
  
  -- see the result
  SELECT * from Employee;