How to delete duplicate rows in SQL Server?

Question

How can I delete duplicate rows where no unique row id exists?

My table is

col1  col2 col3 col4 col5 col6 col7
john  1          


        

Answer 1

It can be done by many ways in sql server the most simplest way to do so is: Insert the distinct rows from the duplicate rows table to new temporary table. Then delete all the data from duplicate rows table then insert all data from temporary table which has no duplicates as shown below.

select distinct * into #tmp From table
   delete from table
   insert into table
   select * from #tmp drop table #tmp

   select * from table

Delete duplicate rows using Common Table Expression(CTE)

With CTE_Duplicates as 
(select id,name , row_number() 
over(partition by id,name order by id,name ) rownumber  from table  ) 
delete from CTE_Duplicates where rownumber!=1