"DELETE FROM" Statements

This section describes how to delete existing data rows with DELETE statements.

DELETE statements are used less frequently in database applications. They are used only when you want to remove data rows from a table permanently. DELETE statements should include a WHERE clause to identify the data rows to be deleted.

DELETE statements should be executed with the executeUpdate() method. The Java tutorial program below shows you how to delete specific rows:

/* DeleteRows.java
 * Copyright (c) HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
import java.sql.*;
public class DeleteRows {
  public static void main(String [] args) {
    Connection con = null;
    try {

      con = DriverManager.getConnection(
          "jdbc:sqlserver://localhost\\SQLEXPRESS;"
        + "user=herong;password=T0pSecret;"
        + "database=AdventureWorks2019");
      Statement sta = con.createStatement();

// deleting multiple rows
      int count = sta.executeUpdate(
        "DELETE FROM Herong.Customer WHERE CustomerID in (1, 3, 5, 7)");
      System.out.println("Number of rows deleted: "+count);

// getting the data back
      ResultSet res = sta.executeQuery(
        "SELECT * FROM Herong.Customer");
      System.out.println("List of Customers: ");
      while (res.next()) {
         System.out.println(
           "  "+res.getInt("CustomerID")
           + ", "+res.getString("FirstName")
           + ", "+res.getString("LastName")
           + ", "+res.getDate("ModifiedDate"));
      }
      res.close();

      sta.close();
      con.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

The output confirms that 4 rows were deleted:

herong> java -cp .;mssql-jdbc-9.4.1.jre16.jar DeleteRows

Number of rows deleted: 4
List of Customers:
  2, Terri, Duffy, 2008-01-24
  4, Rob, Walters, 2007-11-28
  6, Jossef, Goldberg, 2013-12-16
  8, Diane, Margheim, 2015-04-01
  9, Gigi, Matthew, 2015-04-01
  10, Michael, Raheem, 2015-04-01
  11, Herong, Yang, 2015-04-01

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) Introduction

 JDK (Java SE) Installation

 Installing and Running Java DB - Derby

 Derby (Java DB) JDBC Driver

 Derby (Java DB) JDBC DataSource Objects

 Java DB (Derby) - DML Statements

 Java DB (Derby) - ResultSet Objects of Queries

 Java DB (Derby) - PreparedStatement

 MySQL Installation on Windows

 MySQL JDBC Driver (MySQL Connector/J)

 MySQL - PreparedStatement

 MySQL - Reference Implementation of JdbcRowSet

 MySQL - JBDC CallableStatement

 MySQL CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 MySQL BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 Oracle Express Edition Installation on Windows

 Oracle JDBC Drivers

 Oracle - Reference Implementation of JdbcRowSet

 Oracle - PreparedStatement

 Oracle - JBDC CallableStatement

 Oracle CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 Oracle BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition

 Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - Query Statements and Result Sets

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DatabaseMetaData Object

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DDL Statements

Microsoft JDBC Driver - DML Statements

 "SELECT ... INTO" Statements

 "INSERT INTO" Statements

 "INSERT INTO" Statements with INDENTITY Columns

 "UPDATE" Statements

"DELETE FROM" Statements

 SQL Server - PreparedStatement

 SQL Server CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 SQL Server BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - Flat Text Files

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS Access

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS SQL Server

 Summary of JDBC Drivers and Database Servers

 Using Connection Pool with JDBC

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB