The SQL Server DELETE Query is used to delete the existing records from a table.
You have to use the WHERE clause with the DELETE query to delete selected rows, otherwise, all the records would be deleted.
Syntax
Following is the basic syntax of DELETE query with WHERE clause −
DELETE FROM table_name
WHERE [condition];
You can combine N number of conditions using AND or OR operators.
Example
Consider the CUSTOMERS table having the following records −
ID NAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY
1 Ramesh 32 Ahmedabad 2000.00
2 Khilan 25 Delhi 1500.00
3 kaushik 23 Kota 2000.00
4 Chaitali 25 Mumbai 6500.00
5 Hardik 27 Bhopal 8500.00
6 Komal 22 MP 4500.00
7 Muffy 24 Indore 10000.00
Following command is an example, which would DELETE a customer, whose ID is 6 −
DELETE FROM CUSTOMERS
WHERE ID = 6;
CUSTOMERS’ table will now have the following records.
ID NAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY
1 Ramesh 32 Ahmedabad 2000.00
2 Khilan 25 Delhi 1500.00
3 kaushik 23 Kota 2000.00
4 Chaitali 25 Mumbai 6500.00
5 Hardik 27 Bhopal 8500.00
7 Muffy 24 Indore 10000.00
If you want to DELETE all the records from the CUSTOMERS table, you do not need to use the WHERE clause. DELETE query would be as follows −
DELETE FROM CUSTOMERS;
CUSTOMERS’ table now will not have any record.
