What is DELETE?

The DELETE statement is used to remove rows from a table.

You can use DELETE when you want to delete one row, delete selected rows, remove records by condition, clean unwanted data, or remove row data while keeping the table structure.

How DELETE works

A basic DELETE statement names the table and uses a WHERE condition to control which row should be deleted.

DELETE FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

Example

DELETE FROM Employees
WHERE employee_id = 6;

Employees table before DELETE

We will delete Ethan Moore’s row from this table.

Deleting one row

This query deletes only one row because the WHERE condition matches one employee.

DELETE FROM Employees
WHERE employee_id = 6;

Deleted row

Be careful with DELETE

Without WHERE, SQL may delete every row from the table.

DELETE FROM Employees;

DELETE FROM Employees
WHERE employee_id = 6;

Key takeaway

DELETE removes rows from a table. Always use a clear WHERE condition when you only want to delete specific rows.