Deleting

The delete() method generates SQL to remove rows from a table, it can be combined with any of the where() methods, the orderBy() and limit() methods.

Delete queries

Deleting all rows in a table

$query->table('movies')->delete();
// DELETE FROM `movies`

Deleting a subset of rows in a table

$query->table('movies')->where('year', '<', 1984)->delete();
// DELETE FROM `movies` WHERE `year` < 1984

Limiting the number of deleted rows

$query->table('movies')->where('year', '<', 1984)->limit(10)->delete();
// DELETE FROM `movies` WHERE `movies`.`year` < 1984 LIMIT 10

Ordering the rows for deletion

$query->table('movies')->where('year', '<', 1984)->orderBy('year', 'DESC')->limit(10)->delete();
// DELETE FROM `movies` WHERE `movies`.`year` < 1984 ORDER BY `movies`.`year` DESC LIMIT 10

Truncate queries

The truncate() method generates SQL to reset a table removing all rows and resetting any increment columns back to zero.

Truncating a table

$query->table('movies')->truncate();
// TRUNCATE TABLE `movies`