Python SQLite - Deleting Data in Table

Last Updated : 01 Jul, 2025

Deleting data in SQLite is achieved using the DELETE statement, which can optionally be combined with a WHERE clause to specify which rows to delete.

Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name [WHERE Clause]

table_name: The name of the table from which you want to delete data.
WHERE condition: This is optional. It specifies the condition for which rows to delete. If omitted, all rows will be deleted from the table.

First, we need to create a database and table to demonstrate DELETE clause, here's how we can do it:

Python

import sqlite3 # Connecting to sqlite (creates 'geek.db' if it doesn't exist) connection_obj = sqlite3.connect('geek.db') # Create a cursor object cursor_obj = connection_obj.cursor() # Drop the table if it already exists (to start fresh) cursor_obj.execute("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS GEEK") # Create the GEEK table table = """ CREATE TABLE GEEK (  Email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,  Name CHAR(25) NOT NULL,  Score INT ); """ cursor_obj.execute(table) # Insert some data into the GEEK table data = [ ("geekk1@gmail.com", "Geek1", 25), ("geekk2@gmail.com", "Geek2", 15), ("geekk3@gmail.com", "Geek3", 36), ("geekk4@gmail.com", "Geek4", 27), ("geekk5@gmail.com", "Geek5", 40), ("geekk6@gmail.com", "Geek6", 14), ("geekk7@gmail.com", "Geek7", 10) ] cursor_obj.executemany("INSERT INTO GEEK (Email, Name, Score) VALUES (?, ?, ?)", data) # Commit changes to the database connection_obj.commit() # Close the connection connection_obj.close()

Output:

Deleting Data from the Table

Now let's look at how to delete data from the GEEK table. We'll cover two examples: deleting specific rows based on a condition and deleting all rows.

Example 1: Delete Rows with Condition

In this example, we'll delete rows where the Score is less than 15.

Python

import sqlite3 # Connecting to sqlite connection_obj = sqlite3.connect('geek.db') # cursor object cursor_obj = connection_obj.cursor() #delete data cursor_obj.execute("DELETE FROM GEEK WHERE Score < 15") connection_obj.commit() # Close the connection connection_obj.close()

Output:

Example 2: Delete All Rows

In this example, we'll delete all the rows from the GEEK table.

Python

import sqlite3 # Connecting to sqlite connection_obj = sqlite3.connect('geek.db') # Create a cursor object cursor_obj = connection_obj.cursor() # Display all data before deletion cursor_obj.execute("SELECT * FROM GEEK") print("Data before deletion:") print(cursor_obj.fetchall()) # Delete all rows from the table cursor_obj.execute("DELETE FROM GEEK") # Commit changes to the database connection_obj.commit() # Display all data after deletion cursor_obj.execute("SELECT * FROM GEEK") print("\nData after deletion:") print(cursor_obj.fetchall()) # Close the connection connection_obj.close()