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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>TRUNCATE</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="sql-start-transaction.html" title="START TRANSACTION" /><link rel="next" href="sql-unlisten.html" title="UNLISTEN" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">TRUNCATE</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sql-start-transaction.html" title="START TRANSACTION">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="sql-commands.html" title="SQL Commands">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">SQL Commands</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.7 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sql-unlisten.html" title="UNLISTEN">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="refentry" id="SQL-TRUNCATE"><div class="titlepage"></div><a id="id-1.9.3.181.1" class="indexterm"></a><div class="refnamediv"><h2><span class="refentrytitle">TRUNCATE</span></h2><p>TRUNCATE — empty a table or set of tables</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><pre class="synopsis">
TRUNCATE [ TABLE ] [ ONLY ] <em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em> [ * ] [, ... ]
    [ RESTART IDENTITY | CONTINUE IDENTITY ] [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
</pre></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.181.5"><h2>Description</h2><p>
   <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> quickly removes all rows from a set of
   tables. It has the same effect as an unqualified
   <code class="command">DELETE</code> on each table, but since it does not actually
   scan the tables it is faster. Furthermore, it reclaims disk space
   immediately, rather than requiring a subsequent <code class="command">VACUUM</code>
   operation. This is most useful on large tables.
  </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.181.6"><h2>Parameters</h2><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
      The name (optionally schema-qualified) of a table to truncate.
      If <code class="literal">ONLY</code> is specified before the table name, only that table
      is truncated.  If <code class="literal">ONLY</code> is not specified, the table and all
      its descendant tables (if any) are truncated.  Optionally, <code class="literal">*</code>
      can be specified after the table name to explicitly indicate that
      descendant tables are included.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">RESTART IDENTITY</code></span></dt><dd><p>
      Automatically restart sequences owned by columns of
      the truncated table(s).
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">CONTINUE IDENTITY</code></span></dt><dd><p>
      Do not change the values of sequences.  This is the default.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">CASCADE</code></span></dt><dd><p>
      Automatically truncate all tables that have foreign-key references
      to any of the named tables, or to any tables added to the group
      due to <code class="literal">CASCADE</code>.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">RESTRICT</code></span></dt><dd><p>
      Refuse to truncate if any of the tables have foreign-key references
      from tables that are not listed in the command.  This is the default.
     </p></dd></dl></div></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.181.7"><h2>Notes</h2><p>
   You must have the <code class="literal">TRUNCATE</code> privilege on a table
   to truncate it.
  </p><p>
   <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> acquires an <code class="literal">ACCESS EXCLUSIVE</code> lock on each
   table it operates on, which blocks all other concurrent operations
   on the table.  When <code class="literal">RESTART IDENTITY</code> is specified, any
   sequences that are to be restarted are likewise locked exclusively.
   If concurrent access to a table is required, then
   the <code class="command">DELETE</code> command should be used instead.
  </p><p>
   <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> cannot be used on a table that has foreign-key
   references from other tables, unless all such tables are also truncated
   in the same command.  Checking validity in such cases would require table
   scans, and the whole point is not to do one.  The <code class="literal">CASCADE</code>
   option can be used to automatically include all dependent tables —
   but be very careful when using this option, or else you might lose data you
   did not intend to!
   Note in particular that when the table to be truncated is a partition,
   siblings partitions are left untouched, but cascading occurs to all
   referencing tables and all their partitions with no distinction.
  </p><p>
   <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> will not fire any <code class="literal">ON DELETE</code>
   triggers that might exist for the tables.  But it will fire
   <code class="literal">ON TRUNCATE</code> triggers.
   If <code class="literal">ON TRUNCATE</code> triggers are defined for any of
   the tables, then all <code class="literal">BEFORE TRUNCATE</code> triggers are
   fired before any truncation happens, and all <code class="literal">AFTER
   TRUNCATE</code> triggers are fired after the last truncation is
   performed and any sequences are reset.
   The triggers will fire in the order that the tables are
   to be processed (first those listed in the command, and then any
   that were added due to cascading).
  </p><p>
   <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> is not MVCC-safe.  After truncation, the table will
   appear empty to concurrent transactions, if they are using a snapshot
   taken before the truncation occurred.
   See <a class="xref" href="mvcc-caveats.html" title="13.6. Caveats">Section 13.6</a> for more details.
  </p><p>
   <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> is transaction-safe with respect to the data
   in the tables: the truncation will be safely rolled back if the surrounding
   transaction does not commit.
  </p><p>
   When <code class="literal">RESTART IDENTITY</code> is specified, the implied
   <code class="command">ALTER SEQUENCE RESTART</code> operations are also done
   transactionally; that is, they will be rolled back if the surrounding
   transaction does not commit.  Be aware that if any additional
   sequence operations are done on the restarted sequences before the
   transaction rolls back, the effects of these operations on the sequences
   will be rolled back, but not their effects on <code class="function">currval()</code>;
   that is, after the transaction <code class="function">currval()</code> will continue to
   reflect the last sequence value obtained inside the failed transaction,
   even though the sequence itself may no longer be consistent with that.
   This is similar to the usual behavior of <code class="function">currval()</code> after
   a failed transaction.
  </p><p>
   <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> can be used for foreign tables if
   supported by the foreign data wrapper, for instance,
   see <a class="xref" href="postgres-fdw.html" title="F.38. postgres_fdw">postgres_fdw</a>.
  </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.181.8"><h2>Examples</h2><p>
   Truncate the tables <code class="literal">bigtable</code> and
   <code class="literal">fattable</code>:

</p><pre class="programlisting">
TRUNCATE bigtable, fattable;
</pre><p>
  </p><p>
   The same, and also reset any associated sequence generators:

</p><pre class="programlisting">
TRUNCATE bigtable, fattable RESTART IDENTITY;
</pre><p>
  </p><p>
   Truncate the table <code class="literal">othertable</code>, and cascade to any tables
   that reference <code class="literal">othertable</code> via foreign-key
   constraints:

</p><pre class="programlisting">
TRUNCATE othertable CASCADE;
</pre></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.181.9"><h2>Compatibility</h2><p>
   The SQL:2008 standard includes a <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> command
   with the syntax <code class="literal">TRUNCATE TABLE
   <em class="replaceable"><code>tablename</code></em></code>.  The clauses
   <code class="literal">CONTINUE IDENTITY</code>/<code class="literal">RESTART IDENTITY</code>
   also appear in that standard, but have slightly different though related
   meanings.  Some of the concurrency behavior of this command is left
   implementation-defined by the standard, so the above notes should be
   considered and compared with other implementations if necessary.
  </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.181.10"><h2>See Also</h2><span class="simplelist"><a class="xref" href="sql-delete.html" title="DELETE"><span class="refentrytitle">DELETE</span></a></span></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sql-start-transaction.html" title="START TRANSACTION">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="sql-commands.html" title="SQL Commands">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sql-unlisten.html" title="UNLISTEN">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">START TRANSACTION </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.7 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> UNLISTEN</td></tr></table></div></body></html>