How do I LIMIT the number of rows in a DELETE with DB2?

Question

I want to add a security on a sensitive table when I delete lines with an SQL request on a DB2 table.

I want to mimic the way MySQL allows you to limit the numbers o

Answer 1

It really depends on your platform.

If you're using DB2 on Linux/Unix/Windows, you can just create a select that gets the rows you want, and put that as a subquery for your delete, and DB2 will be able to delete the results of your select. Like so:

DELETE FROM (
    SELECT 1
    FROM table
    WHERE info = '1'
    ORDER BY your_key_columns
    FETCH FIRST ROW ONLY
) AS A
;

If you're on DB2 for z/OS, that syntax doesn't work, unfortunately. But, you can use your primary keys to do basically the same thing (this one also works on LUW):

DELETE FROM table
WHERE (info, key2) IN (
    SELECT info, key2
    FROM table
    WHERE info = 1
    ORDER BY key2
    FETCH FIRST ROW ONLY
);

---

Here is an example script that demonstrates how it's used:

DECLARE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE SESSION.TEST(
     ID INT
    ,RN INT
) ON COMMIT PRESERVE ROWS;

INSERT INTO SESSION.TEST 
    SELECT 1,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 1,2 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 1,3 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 1,4 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 1,5 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL

    SELECT 2,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 2,2 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 2,3 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL

    SELECT 3,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 3,2 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 3,3 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL

    SELECT 4,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 4,2 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL

    SELECT 5,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 6,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 7,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 8,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 9,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 10,1 FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1
;

SELECT * FROM SESSION.TEST ORDER BY ID, RN;

-- LUW Version
DELETE FROM (
    SELECT 1
    FROM SESSION.TEST
    WHERE ID = 1
    ORDER BY RN
    FETCH FIRST ROW ONLY
) AS A
;

--Mainframe version
DELETE FROM SESSION.TEST
WHERE (ID, RN) IN (
    SELECT ID, RN
    FROM SESSION.TEST
    WHERE ID = 1
    ORDER BY RN
    FETCH FIRST ROW ONLY
);

SELECT * FROM SESSION.TEST ORDER BY ID, RN;

DROP TABLE SESSION.TEST;