---
title: "6: Deleting records | SurrealDB University"
description: "Follow along with interactive SurrealDB lessons featuring hands-on exercises, code examples, and step-by-step instructions."
url: https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-06
---

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Course chapters

[Welcome to the Tour of SurrealDB!](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour) [1: Connecting to a database](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-01) [2: Creating records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-02) [3: Using the ONLY keyword](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-03) [4: Non-ASCII record IDs](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-04) [5: Parentheses, indexing, and accessing fields](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-05) [6: Deleting records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-06) [7: Field order in objects](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-07) [8: Tips when selecting records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-08) [9: Casting and aliases](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-09) [10: Affixes](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-10) [11: Updating records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-11) [12: Linking records](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-12) [13: Viewing the database as a whole](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-13) [14: Schemafull and schemaless](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-14) [15: Viewing the schema](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-15) [16: Literal types and assertions](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-16) [17: INSERT and using JSON](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-17) [18: FOR loops](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-18) [19: Basic graph relations](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-19) [20: Creating graph edges](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-20) [21: Querying graph relations](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-21) [22: Graph relations at greater depth](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-22) [23: Adding and improving data](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-23) [24: Defining events](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-24) [25: Defining indexes](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-25) [26: Improving the schema](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-26) [27: Visualising graph paths](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-27) [28: Recursive queries: setup](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-28) [29: Recursive queries](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-29) [30: More on recursive queries](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-30) [31: AI vector search](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-31) [Done the tour!](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-32)

# 6: Deleting records

None of our `place` records have any useful information, so let's delete them to get ready to finally create the one library that we need. Two things to know when using [`DELETE`](https://surrealdb.com/docs/reference/query-language/statements/delete) are:

- A `DELETE` statement followed by a table name will delete *all* of the records from that table.
- When SurrealDB performs an operation, it returns the result *after* the operation. So for `DELETE`, it will return nothing (an empty array).

Here is a quick example that shows this behaviour.

```
CREATE some_record;DELETE some_record;
```

![Surrealist Icon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/fdfe2c20f5941d5e.D0guSOhZ.webp) Run Query

Response

```surql
-------- Query 1 --------

[
  {
    id: some_record:wqewkk86z6qqi18yenhc
  }
]

-------- Query 2 --------

[]
```

If you want to return the state before an operation, you can add `RETURN BEFORE` to the end of a query. This is especially useful in `DELETE` statements because it shows which records were deleted.

```
DELETE place RETURN BEFORE;
```

![Surrealist Icon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/fdfe2c20f5941d5e.D0guSOhZ.webp) Run Query

Response

```surql
[
  {
    id: place:b53ful62pogdxvjb57sh,
    num_books: 10000,
    place_type: 'library'
  },
  {
    id: place:bx4iy7ckqzhyj5xkrba9
  },
  {
    id: place:e6uldb0aoq4jib2kfgqs,
    place_type: 'library'
  },
  {
    id: place:⟨ma_bibliothèque⟩
  },
  {
    id: place:mq62n1aic4nxpuiuss93
  },
  {
    id: place:my_library
  },
  {
    id: place:noamxxe7h1rx59403sdw
  },
  {
    id: place:p2n354tklmfpgxl3bifs
  },
  {
    id: place:⟨良い図書館⟩
  },
  {
    id: place:⟨𒂍𒁾𒁀𒀀⟩
  }
]
```

You can use a `WHERE` clause to delete records that match a certain condition, or `DELETE` on a single record ID to delete just one.

```surql
/**
[test]

[[test.results]]
value = "[]"

[[test.results]]
value = "[]"

*/

-- Delete everyone named "Bill":
-- might be zero, one, or more records
DELETE person WHERE name = "Bill";

-- Will only delete one record
DELETE person:bill;
```

You can also delete a [range](https://surrealdb.com/docs/reference/query-language/language-primitives/data-types/ranges) of records.

```surql
/**
[test]

[[test.results]]
value = "[]"

[[test.results]]
value = "[]"

*/

-- Delete from person:1 up to but not including person:3
DELETE person:1..3;

-- Delete from person:1 up to and including person:3
DELETE person:1..=3;
```

Previous

5: Parentheses, indexing, and accessing fields

[Previous](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-05)

Next lesson

7: Field order in objects

[Next lesson](https://surrealdb.com/learn/tour/page-07)

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