Empties a base table by truncation.

Syntax

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EMPTY TABLE <TableName>
[IGNORE CONSTRAINTS]

Usage

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Use this statement to empty a base table so that all rows are physically removed from the table. When all rows are normally deleted from a table using the DELETE statement, the physical row space is marked for re-use, and the physical table files where the rows, indexes, and BLOBs are stored does not decrease in size. Emptying a table also physically truncates the table file space so that the table files appear as if they were newly-created.

The IGNORE CONSTRAINT clause is used to bypass any constraint checks, which makes the EMPTY TABLE operation faster, but at the risk of violating foreign-key constraints, if any are present. See below for more information on the elevated privileges required to use this clause.

Examples

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-- The following example empties
-- the Customer table, ignoring any
-- defined constraints

EMPTY TABLE Customer
IGNORE CONSTRAINTS

Required Privileges

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The current user must be granted the DELETE privilege on the table being emptied. If the IGNORE CONSTRAINTS clause is specified, then the current user must be granted the system-defined Administrators role in order to execute this statement. Please see the User Security topic for more information.

SQL 2003 Standard Deviations

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This statement deviates from the SQL 2003 standard in the following ways: