DELETE

Enterprise command reference.

Command Snapshot

Field	Value
Category	DML
Mutates Data	Yes/Depends
Scope	Statement
Privilege Model	Requires write privilege (DML) and read privilege where predicates reference source relations.

Purpose

Mutates table rows while honoring MonkDB indexing, routing, and write-path semantics.

Syntax

DELETE FROM table_ident [ [AS] table_alias ] [ WHERE condition ]

Operational Notes

• Use schema-qualified identifiers in automation and automation pipelines.
• Validate behavior in staging for cluster-impacting or governance-impacting changes.
• Confirm runtime effects through system tables and metrics before and after execution.

When to Use

• Use for controlled data mutations and ingest/export workflows.
• Use when transactional scope is statement-level and operational visibility is available.

When Not to Use

• Avoid large write bursts without capacity checks for breakers, disk, and shard health.
• Avoid ad-hoc production mutations without clear idempotency or rollback plan.

Common Errors and Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely Cause	Action
Permission denied / unauthorized	Missing privilege on object or cluster scope	Re-run with required grants or elevated admin role.
Analysis/parse error	Syntax variant or object shape mismatch	Compare with canonical syntax and object definition.
Runtime failure under load	Resource limits, breaker pressure, or node state transitions	Check sys.jobs, sys.operations, sys.checks, and retry after mitigation.

Cross-References

• SQL Command Catalog
• SQL Commands Index
• SQL Reference Overview

Detailed Reference

The DELETE command in MonkDB (and SQL in general) is used to remove rows from a table based on specified conditions.

SQL Statement

DELETE FROM table_ident [ [AS] table_alias ] [ WHERE condition ]

Description

The DELETE statement removes rows from a designated table that meet the conditions specified in the WHERE clause. If the WHERE clause is omitted, all rows in the table will be deleted, resulting in a valid but empty table.

Parameters

• table_ident: The name of an existing table from which rows will be deleted, which can include an optional schema qualification.
• table_alias: An alternative name for the target table. When an alias is used, it conceals the actual table name entirely. For instance, in the statement DELETE FROM foo AS f, all subsequent references to this table must use f instead of foo.
• condition: A boolean expression that determines which rows will be deleted. Only those rows for which this expression evaluates to true will be removed.

---

Examples

Example 1. Delete Specific Rows

To remove rows based on a condition:

DELETE FROM employees WHERE department = 'HR';

This deletes all rows where the department column has the value HR.

Example 2. Delete Using Table Alias

You can use an alias for the table to simplify references:

DELETE FROM employees AS e WHERE e.department = 'Finance';

This deletes rows from the employees table where the department is Finance, using the alias e.

Example 3. Delete Rows Based on Multiple Conditions

Combine conditions with logical operators:

• Using AND:

DELETE FROM employees WHERE department = 'Sales' AND age > 40;

Deletes rows where both conditions are true.

• Using OR:

DELETE FROM employees WHERE department = 'Marketing' OR age < 25;

Deletes rows where either condition is true.

Example 4. Delete All Rows

To empty a table without dropping its structure:

DELETE FROM employees;

This removes all rows from the employees table, leaving it empty but intact.

Example 5. Delete with Schema Qualification

Specify a schema-qualified table name:

DELETE FROM company.employees WHERE department = 'IT';

Deletes rows from the employees table within the company schema where the department is IT.

Example 6. Delete and Return Deleted Rows

MonkDB supports returning information about deleted rows:

DELETE FROM employees WHERE department = 'HR' RETURNING id, name;

This deletes rows and returns their id and name.