---
title: "Delete and Drop statements in SQL Server"  
description: "Delete and Drop statements in SQL Server"  
author: "Revati S Misra"  
published: 2023-07-11  
updated: 2023-07-12  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159028/delete-and-drop-statements-in-sql-server  
category: "mssql server"  
tags: ["mssql server", "sql server", "sql"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# Delete and Drop statements in SQL Server

[Delete](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/33620/how-to-delete-record-from-list-in-mvc-using-ajax) and [Drop](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159392/how-to-fetch-the-value-of-the-selected-options-in-drop-down-in-php) statements in [SQL Server](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12999/what-is-table-valued-function-in-sql-server)

## Replies

### Reply by Aryan Kumar

Sure, I can help you with that.

The **DELETE** and **DROP** statements are two of the most important statements in [SQL](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/13115/types-of-keys-in-sql-or-oracle-database) [Server](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/43769/what-is-serverless-architecture-is-it-worth-switching-over). They are used to delete data from tables and to drop tables from the database.

The **DELETE** statement is used to delete rows from a table. The syntax for the **DELETE** statement is as follows:

SQL

```plaintext
DELETE FROM table_name
WHERE condition;
```

The `table_name` is the name of the table from which you want to delete rows. The `condition` is an optional clause that specifies the rows that you want to delete. If you do not specify a `condition`, then all rows from the table will be deleted.

The **DROP** statement is used to drop tables from the database. The syntax for the **DROP** statement is as follows:

SQL

```plaintext
DROP TABLE table_name;
```

The `table_name` is the name of the table that you want to drop.

## Difference between DELETE and DROP statements

The main difference between the **DELETE** and **DROP** statements is that the **DELETE** statement only deletes rows from a table, while the **DROP** statement deletes the entire table.

Here is a table that summarizes the differences between the **DELETE** and **DROP** statements:

| Feature | DELETE | DROP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Deletes rows | Yes | No |
| Deletes the entire table | No | Yes |
| Used to delete specific rows | Yes | No |
| Used to delete all rows from a table | No | Yes |

## When to use the DELETE and DROP statements

The **DELETE** statement should be used when you want to delete specific rows from a table. The **DROP** statement should be used when you want to delete an entire table.

For example, if you want to delete all rows from the `Customers` table, you would use the following code:

SQL

```plaintext
DELETE FROM Customers;
```

If you want to delete the `Customers` table altogether, you would use the following code:

SQL

```plaintext
DROP TABLE Customers;
```


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159028/delete-and-drop-statements-in-sql-server

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