Delete Rows (Data Management)

Summary

Deletes all or the selected subset of rows from the input.

If the input rows are from a feature class or table, all rows will be deleted. If the input rows are from a layer or table view with no selection, all rows will be deleted.

Usage

• The Input Rows parameter can be an INFO or dBASE table, ArcSDE, file, or personal geodatabase table or feature class, shapefile, layer, or table view.

• If this tool is used on feature data, the entire row, including the geometry, will be deleted.

• If a layer or table view is input, and the layer or table view does not have a selection, all rows will be deleted. If a table is input, all rows will be deleted. If the table resides in ArcSDE, a database truncate operation will be used when run against a table, a feature class, a table view without a selection, or a feature layer without a selection. A database truncate operation is much faster than deleting row by row. Truncate operations cannot be rolled back and cannot be recovered or undone using undo/redo.

• When working in ArcMap and using a layer or table view with a selection as input, using this tool in an edit session will allow for the Delete Rows operation to be undone using undo/redo.

  Caution:

  If run against a layer or table view that does not have a selection, the operation cannot be undone using undo/redo.

Syntax

DeleteRows_management (in_rows)

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
in_rows	The feature class, layer, table, or table view whose rows will be deleted.	Table View

Code Sample

DeleteRows example 1 (Python window)

The following Python window script demonstrates how to use the DeleteRows function in immediate mode.

import arcpy
from arcpy import env

env.workspace = "C:/data"
arcpy.CopyRows_management("accident.dbf", "C:/output/accident2.dbf")
arcpy.DeleteRows_management("C:/output/accident2.dbf")

DeleteRows example 2 (stand-alone script)

The following stand-alone script demonstrates how to use the DeleteRows function to delete rows based on an expression.

# Name: DeleteRows_Example2.py
# Description: Delete rows from a table based on an expression
 
# Import system modules
import arcpy
from arcpy import env

try: 
    # Set environment settings
    env.workspace = "C:/data"

    # Set local variables
    inTable = "accident.dbf"
    outTable = "C:/output/new_accident.dbf"
    tempTableView = "accidentTableView"
    expression = arcpy.AddFieldDelimiters(tempTableView, "Measure") + " = 0"

    # Execute CopyRows to make a new copy of the table
    arcpy.CopyRows_management(inTable, outTable)

    # Execute MakeTableView
    arcpy.MakeTableView_management(outTable, tempTableView)

    # Execute SelectLayerByAttribute to determine which rows to delete
    arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management(tempTableView, "NEW_SELECTION", expression)

    # Execute GetCount and if some features have been selected, then execute
    #  DeleteRows to remove the selected rows.
    if int(arcpy.GetCount_management(tempLayer).getOutput(0)) > 0:
        arcpy.DeleteRows_management(tempLayer)

except Exception, e:
    # If an error occurred, print line number and error message
    import traceback, sys
    tb = sys.exc_info()[2]
    print "Line %i" % tb.tb_lineno
    print e.message

Environments

Current Workspace

Licensing Information

ArcView: Yes

ArcEditor: Yes

ArcInfo: Yes