CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sql-serverdelete-row
George
George

Reputation: 6084

Delete latest entry in SQL Server without using datetime or ID

I have a basic SQL Server delete script that goes:

Delete from tableX 
where colA = ? and colB = ?;

In tableX, I do not have any columns indicating sequential IDs or timestamp; just varchar. I want to delete the latest entry that was inserted, and I do not have access to the row number from the insert script. TOP is not an option because it's random. Also, this particular table does not have a primary key, and it's not a matter of poor design. Is there any way I can do this? I recall mysql being able to call something like max(row_number) and also something along the lines of limit one.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 238

Answers (3)

KarmaEDV
KarmaEDV

Reputation: 1691

ROW_NUMBER exists in SQL Server, too, but it must be used with an OVER (order_by_clause). So... in your case it's impossible for you unless you come up with another sorting algo.

MSDN

Edit: (Examples for George from MSDN ... I'm afraid his company has a Firewall rule that blocks MSDN)

SQL-Code

USE AdventureWorks2012; 
GO
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS Row, 
    FirstName, LastName, ROUND(SalesYTD,2,1) AS "Sales YTD" 
FROM Sales.vSalesPerson
WHERE TerritoryName IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0;

Output

Row FirstName    LastName               SalesYTD
--- -----------  ---------------------- -----------------
1   Linda        Mitchell               4251368.54
2   Jae          Pak                    4116871.22
3   Michael      Blythe                 3763178.17
4   Jillian      Carson                 3189418.36
5   Ranjit       Varkey Chudukatil      3121616.32
6   José         Saraiva                2604540.71
7   Shu          Ito                    2458535.61
8   Tsvi         Reiter                 2315185.61
9   Rachel       Valdez                 1827066.71
10  Tete         Mensa-Annan            1576562.19
11  David        Campbell               1573012.93
12  Garrett      Vargas                 1453719.46
13  Lynn         Tsoflias               1421810.92
14  Pamela       Ansman-Wolfe           1352577.13

Returning a subset of rows

USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
WITH OrderedOrders AS
(
    SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate,
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY OrderDate) AS RowNumber
    FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader 
) 
SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate, RowNumber  
FROM OrderedOrders 
WHERE RowNumber BETWEEN 50 AND 60;

Using ROW_NUMBER() with PARTITION

USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
SELECT FirstName, LastName, TerritoryName, ROUND(SalesYTD,2,1),
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY TerritoryName ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS Row
FROM Sales.vSalesPerson
WHERE TerritoryName IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0
ORDER BY TerritoryName;

Output

FirstName  LastName             TerritoryName        SalesYTD      Row
---------  -------------------- ------------------   ------------  ---
Lynn       Tsoflias             Australia            1421810.92    1
José       Saraiva              Canada               2604540.71    1
Garrett    Vargas               Canada               1453719.46    2
Jillian    Carson               Central              3189418.36    1
Ranjit     Varkey Chudukatil    France               3121616.32    1
Rachel     Valdez               Germany              1827066.71    1
Michael    Blythe               Northeast            3763178.17    1
Tete       Mensa-Annan          Northwest            1576562.19    1
David      Campbell             Northwest            1573012.93    2
Pamela     Ansman-Wolfe         Northwest            1352577.13    3
Tsvi       Reiter               Southeast            2315185.61    1
Linda      Mitchell             Southwest            4251368.54    1
Shu        Ito                  Southwest            2458535.61    2
Jae        Pak                  United Kingdom       4116871.22    1

Upvotes: 2

user2221088
user2221088

Reputation:

If (colA +'_'+ colB) can not be dublicate try this.

 declare @delColumn nvarchar(250)

    set @delColumn = (select top 1   DeleteColumn from (
    select (colA +'_'+ colB)  as DeleteColumn ,
          ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY colA DESC) as Id from tableX  
    )b
    order by Id desc
    )

delete  from tableX where  (colA +'_'+ colB) =@delColumn

Upvotes: 0

HLGEM
HLGEM

Reputation: 96570

Your current table design does not allow you to determine the latest entry. YOu have no field to sort on to indicate which record was added last.

You need to redesign or pull that information from the audit tables. If you have a database without audit tables, you might have to find a tool to read the transaction logs and it will be a very time-consuming and expensive process. Or if you know the date the records you want to remove were added, you could possibly use a backup from just before this happened to find the records that were added. Just be awwre that you might be looking at records changed after this date that you want to keep.

If you need to do this on a regular basis instead of one-time to fix some bad data, then you need to properly design your database to include an identity field and possibly a dateupdated field (maintained through a trigger) or audit tables. (In my opinion no database containing information your company is depending on should be without audit tables, one of the many reasons why you should never allow an ORM to desgn a database, but I digress.) If you need to know the order records were added to a table, it is your responsiblity as the developer to create that structure. Databases only store what is deisnged for tehm to store, if you didn't design it in, then it is not available easily or at all

Upvotes: 2

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