How to Delete using INNER JOIN with SQL Server?

Question

I want to delete using INNER JOIN in SQL Server 2008.

But I get this error:

Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 15<

Answer 1

In SQL Server Management Studio I can easily create a SELECT query.

SELECT Contact.Naam_Contactpersoon, Bedrijf.BedrijfsNaam, Bedrijf.Adres, Bedrijf.Postcode
FROM Contact
INNER JOIN Bedrijf ON Bedrijf.IDBedrijf = Contact.IDbedrijf

I can execute it, and all my contacts are shown.

Now change the SELECT to a DELETE:

DELETE Contact
FROM Contact
INNER JOIN Bedrijf ON Bedrijf.IDBedrijf = Contact.IDbedrijf

All the records you saw in the SELECT statement will be removed.

You may even create a more difficult inner join with he same procedure, for example:

DELETE FROM Contact
INNER JOIN Bedrijf ON Bedrijf.IDBedrijf = Contact.IDbedrijf
INNER JOIN LoginBedrijf ON Bedrijf.IDLoginBedrijf = LoginBedrijf.IDLoginBedrijf

Answer 2

You don't specify the tables for Company and Date, you might want to fix that.

Standard SQL using MERGE:

MERGE WorkRecord2 T
   USING Employee S
      ON T.EmployeeRun = S.EmployeeNo
         AND Company = '1'
         AND Date = '2013-05-06'
WHEN MATCHED THEN DELETE;

The answer from @Devart is also Standard SQL though incomplete, should look more like this:

DELETE 
  FROM WorkRecord2
  WHERE EXISTS ( SELECT *
                   FROM Employee S
                  WHERE S.EmployeeNo = WorkRecord2.EmployeeRun
                        AND Company = '1'
                        AND Date = '2013-05-06' );

The important thing to note about the above is it is clear the delete is targeting a single table, as enforced in the second example by requiring a scalar subquery.

For me the various proprietary syntax answers are harder to read and understand. I guess the mindset for is best described in the answer by @frans eilering i.e. the person writing the code doesn't necessarily care about the person who will read and maintain the code.

Answer 3

You could even do a sub-query. Like this code bellow:

DELETE FROM users WHERE id IN(
    SELECT user_id FROM Employee WHERE Company = '1' AND Date = '2013-05-06'
)

Answer 4

Try this:

DELETE FROM WorkRecord2 
       FROM Employee 
Where EmployeeRun=EmployeeNo
      And Company = '1' 
      AND Date = '2013-05-06'

Answer 5

This version should works

DELETE WorkRecord2
FROM WorkRecord2 
INNER JOIN Employee ON EmployeeRun=EmployeeNo
Where Company = '1' AND Date = '2013-05-06'

Answer 6

Here's what I currently use for deleting or even, updating:

DELETE           w
FROM             WorkRecord2   w,
                 Employee      e
WHERE            w.EmployeeRun = e.EmployeeNo
             AND w.Company = '1' 
             AND w.Date = '2013-05-06'