Deleting rows with MySQL LEFT JOIN

fabrik picture fabrik · May 4, 2010 · Viewed 137.2k times · Source

I have two tables, one for job deadlines, one for describe a job. Each job can take a status and some statuses means the jobs' deadlines must be deleted from the other table.

I can easily SELECT the jobs/deadlines that meets my criteria with a LEFT JOIN:

SELECT * FROM `deadline`
LEFT JOIN `job` ON deadline.job_id = job.job_id
WHERE `status` = 'szamlazva'
OR `status` = 'szamlazhato'
OR `status` = 'fizetve'
OR `status` = 'szallitva'
OR `status` = 'storno'

(status belongs to job table not deadline)

But when I'd like to delete these rows from deadline, MySQL throws an error. My query is:

DELETE FROM `deadline`
LEFT JOIN `job`
ON deadline.job_id = job.job_id
WHERE `status` = 'szamlazva'
OR `status` = 'szamlazhato'
OR `status` = 'fizetve'
OR `status` = 'szallitva'
OR `status` = 'storno'

MySQL error says nothing:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'LEFT JOIN job ON deadline.job_id = job.job_id WHERE status = 'szaml' at line 1

How can I turn my SELECT into a working DELETE query?

Answer

Daniel Vassallo picture Daniel Vassallo · May 4, 2010

You simply need to specify on which tables to apply the DELETE.

Delete only the deadline rows:

DELETE `deadline` FROM `deadline` LEFT JOIN `job` ....

Delete the deadline and job rows:

DELETE `deadline`, `job` FROM `deadline` LEFT JOIN `job` ....

Delete only the job rows:

DELETE `job` FROM `deadline` LEFT JOIN `job` ....