How do you delete all rows from a table?

To delete every row from a table, you can use either the DELETE or TRUNCATE commands.

#1. Using DELETE

• Removes every record, but keeps the table's structure.
• The delete can be rolled back within a transaction (ROLLBACK), if that's supported.
• Can be slower on large tables, since it checks each record.

#2. Using TRUNCATE

• Removes every record fast, also keeps the table's structure.
• Usually doesn't support a rollback in some DBMSs.
• Auto-increment counters are often reset.

Example:

Put simply, DELETE and TRUNCATE both clear a table entirely, but TRUNCATE does it faster and with no per-row checking.