Delete, Truncate or Drop to clean out a table in MySQL

mysql sql-delete sql-drop
Doug Molineux picture Doug Molineux · Apr 8, 2010 · Viewed 35.3k times · Source

I am attempting to clean out a table but not get rid of the actual structure of the table. I have an id column that is auto-incrementing; I don't need to keep the ID number, but I do need it to keep its auto-incrementing characteristic. I've found delete and truncate but I'm worried one of these will completely drop the entire table rendering future insert commands useless.

How do I remove all of the records from the table so that I can insert new data?

Answer

chris picture chris · Apr 8, 2010

drop table will remove the entire table with data

delete * from table will remove the data, leaving the autoincrement values alone. it also takes a while if there's a lot of data in the table.

truncate table will remove the data, reset the autoincrement values (but leave them as autoincrement columns, so it'll just start at 1 and go up from there again), and is very quick.

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