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

-- this query will keep only one instance of a duplicate record.
;WITH cte
     AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY col1, col2, col3-- based on what? --can be multiple columns
                                       ORDER BY ( SELECT 0)) RN
         FROM   Mytable)



delete  FROM cte
WHERE  RN > 1