SQL DELETE with INNER JOIN

There are 2 tables, spawnlist and npc, and I need to delete data from spawnlsit. npc_templateid = n.idTemplate is the only thing that "connect" the tables. I have tried this script but it doesn't work.

I have tried this:

DELETE s FROM spawnlist s
INNER JOIN npc n ON s.npc_templateid = n.idTemplate
WHERE (n.type = "monster");

Solution 1:

Add .* to s in your first line.

Try:

DELETE s.* FROM spawnlist s
INNER JOIN npc n ON s.npc_templateid = n.idTemplate
WHERE (n.type = "monster");

Solution 2:

If the database is InnoDB then it might be a better idea to use foreign keys and cascade on delete, this would do what you want and also result in no redundant data being stored.

For this example however I don't think you need the first s:

DELETE s 
FROM spawnlist AS s 
INNER JOIN npc AS n ON s.npc_templateid = n.idTemplate 
WHERE n.type = "monster";

It might be a better idea to select the rows before deleting so you are sure your deleting what you wish to:

SELECT * FROM spawnlist
INNER JOIN npc ON spawnlist.npc_templateid = npc.idTemplate
WHERE npc.type = "monster";

You can also check the MySQL delete syntax here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/delete.html

Solution 3:

if the database is InnoDB you dont need to do joins in deletion. only

DELETE FROM spawnlist WHERE spawnlist.type = "monster";

can be used to delete the all the records that linked with foreign keys in other tables, to do that you have to first linked your tables in design time.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXIST spawnlist (
  npc_templateid VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY

)ENGINE=InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXIST npc (
  idTemplate VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,

  FOREIGN KEY (idTemplate) REFERENCES spawnlist(npc_templateid) ON DELETE CASCADE

)ENGINE=InnoDB;

if you uses MyISAM you can delete records joining like this

DELETE a,b
FROM `spawnlist` a
JOIN `npc` b
ON a.`npc_templateid` = b.`idTemplate`
WHERE a.`type` = 'monster';

in first line i have initialized the two temp tables for delet the record, in second line i have assigned the existance table to both a and b but here i have linked both tables together with join keyword, and i have matched the primary and foreign key for both tables that make link, in last line i have filtered the record by field to delete.