SQL SERVER – How To Delete a Record from the Table

Delete is the data manipulation Language statement which can be used to Remove the existing Record from a Table or a view.

We will see the syntax of the Delete statement :

Syntax :

DELETE                                                                        [ TOP ( expression ) [PERCENT ] ]                                    [ FROM ]{<object>}                                                                    [ WHERE { <search_condition> } ]

<object> ::=                                                                  {                                                                                [ server_name .database_name .schema_name .                  |database_name.schema_name ].                                      |schema_name .                                                            ]  table_or_view_name}

TOP ( expression ) [ PERCENT ]

Specifies the number or percent of rows that will be updated. 

server_name

Is the name of the linked server on which the table or view is located.

database_name

Is the name of the database.

schema_name

Is the name of the schema to which the table or view belongs.

table_or view_name

Is the name of the table or view from which the rows are to be updated.

WHERE                                                                                   

          Specifies the conditions used to limit the number of rows     that are deleted. If a WHERE clause is not supplied, DELETE removes all the rows from the table.

<search_condition>                                                                                     

           Specifies the restricting conditions for the rows to be deleted. There is no limit to the number of predicates that can be included in a search condition.

Example :

Let us see the example for Deleting an Employee from the Employee table where the Employee Id is ‘Emp007’

Delete Employee                                                          
Where                                                                          
EmpId = 'Emp007'