# Delete statements

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[← Update statements](/rezoom-sql/language/updatestmt.md) | [Common table expressions →](/rezoom-sql/language/commontableexpression.md)

## Delete statements

An **delete statement** permanently removes rows from a table.

Its syntax typically looks like so. Note that rarely-used clauses have been excluded from this diagram -- see the bottom of this section for a full diagram.

#### *delete-stmt*

![](/files/bhgcf173SWGOU2OoAO7Y)

All of the complexity of a delete statement goes in its `where` clause, which determines which rows to delete from the table. Rows for which the `where` expression evaluates to `true` will be deleted.

If no `where` clause is supplied, all rows in the table will be deleted, which is usually **not** what you want.

### Limited deletes

Occasionally it is useful to delete only a limited number of rows.

Often you can do this with a `where Id in(select Id from ... limit x)`. In fact, this is the most flexible approach.

However, it is also possible to put a `limit` clause on the `delete` statement itself, which may perform better on some database backends.

This is the full syntax for the delete statement.

![](/files/XjlVxtfA0Bm2vQe14ZOZ)

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[← Update statements](/rezoom-sql/language/updatestmt.md) | [Common table expressions →](/rezoom-sql/language/commontableexpression.md)


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