How to delete all rows from all tables in a SQL Server database?

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How to delete all rows from all tables in a SQL Server database?

12 Answers

Note that TRUNCATE won't work if you have any referential integrity set.

In that case, this will work:

EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'DISABLE TRIGGER ALL ON ?'
GO
EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL'
GO
EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON; DELETE FROM ?'
GO
EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER TABLE ? WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL'
GO
EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ENABLE TRIGGER ALL ON ?'
GO

Edit: To be clear, the ? in the statements is a ?. It's replaced with the table name by the sp_MSForEachTable procedure.

If you just have constraints just paste this lines in the query and run it

EXEC sys.sp_msforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL' 
EXEC sys.sp_msforeachtable 'DELETE FROM ?'
EXEC sys.sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER TABLE ? CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL' 

You could delete all the rows from all tables using an approach like Rubens suggested, or you could just drop and recreate all the tables. Always a good idea to have the full db creation scripts anyway so that may be the easiest/quickest method.

This answer builds on Zach Smith's answer by resetting the identity column as well:

  1. Disabling all constraints
  2. Iterating through all tables except those you choose to exclude
  3. Deletes all rows from the table
  4. Resets the identity column if one exists
  5. Re-enables all constraints

Here is the query:

-- Disable all constraints in the database
EXEC sp_msforeachtable "ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT all"

declare @catalog nvarchar(250);
declare @schema nvarchar(250);
declare @tbl nvarchar(250);
DECLARE i CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD FOR select
                                        TABLE_CATALOG,
                                        TABLE_SCHEMA,
                                        TABLE_NAME
                                        from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
                                        where
                                        TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
                                        AND TABLE_NAME != 'sysdiagrams'
                                        AND TABLE_NAME != '__RefactorLog'
                                        -- Optional
                                        -- AND (TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo')

OPEN i;
FETCH NEXT FROM i INTO @catalog, @schema, @tbl;
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
    BEGIN
        DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX) = N'DELETE FROM [' + @catalog + '].[' + @schema + '].[' + @tbl + '];'
        /* Make sure these are the commands you want to execute before executing */
        PRINT 'Executing statement: ' + @sql
        --EXECUTE sp_executesql @sql

        -- Reset identity counter if one exists
        IF ((SELECT OBJECTPROPERTY( OBJECT_ID(@catalog + '.' + @schema + '.' + @tbl), 'TableHasIdentity')) = 1)
        BEGIN
            SET @sql = N'DBCC CHECKIDENT ([' + @catalog + '.' + @schema + '.' + @tbl + '], RESEED, 0)'
            PRINT 'Executing statement: ' + @sql
            --EXECUTE sp_executesql @sql
        END     

        FETCH NEXT FROM i INTO @catalog, @schema, @tbl;
    END
CLOSE i;
DEALLOCATE i;

-- Re-enable all constraints again
EXEC sp_msforeachtable "ALTER TABLE ? WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT all"
--Load tables to delete from
SELECT 
DISTINCT
' Delete top 1000000 from <DBName>.<schema>.' + c.TABLE_NAME + ' WHERE <Filter Clause Here>' AS query,c.TABLE_NAME AS TableName, IsDeleted=0, '<InsertSomeDescriptorHere>' AS [Source]--,t.TABLE_TYPE, c.*
            INTO dbo.AllTablesToDeleteFrom
            FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES AS t
            INNER JOIN information_schema.columns c ON c.TABLE_NAME = t.TABLE_NAME 
    WHERE c.COLUMN_NAME = '<column name>'
           AND c.TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo'
           AND c.TABLE_CATALOG = '<DB Name here>'
           AND t.TABLE_TYPE='Base table'
           --AND t.TABLE_NAME LIKE '<put filter here>'

            DECLARE @TableSelect NVARCHAR(1000)= '';
            DECLARE @Table NVARCHAR(1000)= '';
            DECLARE @IsDeleted INT= 0;
            DECLARE @NumRows INT = 1000000;
            DECLARE @Source NVARCHAR(50)='';


            WHILE ( @IsDeleted = 0 )
                BEGIN
                --This grabs one table at a time to be deleted from. @TableSelect has the sql to execute. it is important to order by IsDeleted ASC
                --because it will pull tables to delete from by those that have a 0=IsDeleted first. Once the loop grabs a table with IsDeleted=1 then this will pop out of loop

                    SELECT TOP 1
                            @TableSelect = query,
                            @IsDeleted = IsDeleted,
                            @Table = TableName,
                            @Source=[a].[Source]
                    FROM    dbo.AllTablesToDeleteFrom a
                    WHERE a.[Source]='SomeDescriptorHere'--use only if needed
                    ORDER BY a.IsDeleted ASC;--this is required because only those records returned with IsDeleted=0 will run through loop

                    --SELECT  @Table; can add this in to  monitor what table is being deleted from

                    WHILE ( @NumRows = 1000000 )--only delete a million rows at a time?

                    BEGIN 
                    EXEC sp_executesql @TableSelect;
                    SET @NumRows = @@ROWCOUNT;
                    --IF @NumRows = 1000000 --can do something here if needed
                    --One wants this loop to continue as long as a million rows is deleted. Once < 1 million rows is deleted it pops out of loop
                    --and grabs next table to delete
                    --    BEGIN
                    --SELECT  @NumRows;--can add this in to see current number of deleted records for table
                            INSERT  INTO dbo.DeleteFromAllTables
                                    ( tableName,
                                      query,
                                      cnt,
                                      [Source]
                                    )
                            SELECT  @Table,
                                    @TableSelect,
                                    @NumRows,
                                    @Source;
                     --   END; 
                END; 



SET @NumRows = 1000000;

UPDATE  a
SET     a.IsDeleted = 1
FROM    dbo.AllTablesToDeleteFrom a
WHERE   a.TableName = @Table;
--flag this as deleted so you can move on to the next table to delete from

END; 
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