Q. How do I empty MySQL database? What SQL command needs to be executed in order to delete all (100s) of tables in MySQL database called atomstore?
A. You need to use DROP DATABASE sql command to drops all tables in the database/empty database and deletes the database. Be very careful with this statement! To use DROP DATABASE, you need the DROP privilege on the database
MySQL drop all tables syntax:
DROP DATABASE {mysql-database-name}
Method #1: Empty database with root user
In order to use this procedure you must have the drop and create database privilege (otherwise you will drop database but not able to create it again). Login as MySQL root or admin user to drop atomstore database:
$ mysql -u root -p
Now drop database:
mysql> DROP DATABASE atomstore;
Now create database again:
mysql> CREATE DATABASE atomstore;
Exit and close the session:
mysql> quit
Method #2: Drop all tables using shell script w/o root access
I’ve small handy shell script that removes all tables without dropping and creating MySQL database again.
#!/bin/bash MUSER="$1" MPASS="$2" MDB="$3" # Detect paths MYSQL=$(which mysql) AWK=$(which awk) GREP=$(which grep) if [ $# -ne 3 ] then echo "Usage: $0 {MySQL-User-Name} {MySQL-User-Password} {MySQL-Database-Name}" echo "Drops all tables from a MySQL" exit 1 fi TABLES=$($MYSQL -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e 'show tables' | $AWK '{ print $1}' | $GREP -v '^Tables' ) for t in $TABLES do echo "Deleting $t table from $MDB database..." $MYSQL -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e "drop table $t" done |
Simply use above script as follows to empty a database called quiz with username tom and password jerry:
$ ./drop.table.sh tom jerry quiz
Download MySQL empty database drop script
You can download complete script with error checking below:
49 comment
Alternative methods:
In PHPMyAdmin, you can check all tables and then choose with selected: drop.
If you are doing it with scripting, You can use SHOW TABLES to list the tables, and use this to generate a query DROP TABLE [tablename],[tablename]…
You can have the drop privilege, but not the create database one!!
BE CAREFUL WHEN DOING THIS! You might end up with no DB at all.
Please don’t suggest this kind of procedures without explaining the whole nine yards.
Unfortunately this is no use if you don’t have permissions for create database (like the situation i am currently in).
Really informative post..thanks..:)
Great post and you do not need create database privileges for this. The method is only dropping the tables and not the database. The user should have create tables under the database..
Thanks
What about :
mysqldump -u[user] -p[ssht...] --add-drop-table --no-data [DATABASE] | grep ^DROP | mysql -u[user] -p[sshht...] [DATABASE]Worked purfect 4 me, tnx. What a clean and tidy script.
YES it works, I was searching for that since 24 HOURS ! Thank you very much
GENIUS … this is the word!
Thank you (even with 6 years delay!)
You can use also:
mysql> use database;
mysql> truncate tablename;
to empty a table!
A little longer, but also a little more efficient because it does the drop (of all tables) in one shot:
mysql --user=YOUR_USERNAME --password=YOUR_PASSWORD -BNe "show tables" YOUR_DBSCHEMA_NAME | tr '\n' ',' | sed -e 's/,$//' | awk '{print "SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;DROP TABLE IF EXISTS " $1 ";SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;"}' | mysql --user=YOUR_USERNAME --password=YOUR_PASSWORD YOUR_DBSCHEMA_NAME
This worked perfecly. Save me the monotony of deleting 300+ tables from a Magento Install
this was very useful….works great ! thanks !
Perfect worked
Thank you so much. its working perfectly….
When the database contains tables with names that are the same as the MySQL reserved keywords (for instance ‘right`), you need a minor addition:
mysql --user=YOUR_USERNAME --password=YOUR_PASSWORD -BNe "show tables" YOUR_DBSCHEMA_NAME | tr '\n' ',' | sed -e 's/,/`,`/g' | sed -e 's/,`$//' | sed -e 's/^/`/' | awk '{print "SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;DROP TABLE IF EXISTS " $1 ";SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;"}' | mysql --user=YOUR_USERNAME --password=YOUR_PASSWORD YOUR_DBSCHEMA_NAMEThis adds back-ticks around the table names
I agree with Romina
I followed it and ended with completely deleting the database and not just the tables!! Your post title is absolutely incorrect. Please change it..
EVERYONE BE CAREFUL WHILE DOING THIS
I want to erase everything that has been looked up on google and everything that has already been looked up like a restart how can i reboot?
I have an apple laptop i was the person earlier
I like this even more.
echo “select concat(‘drop table ‘, table_name, ‘;’) from information_schema.tables where table_schema=schema()” | mysql CONNECT | grep “^drop table ” | mysql CONNECT
Make sure you connect to the right schema :p
That’s the most elegant solution IMHO!
You should disable FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS. I like Lon F. Binder solution.
How can i change this script so that it erases the rows from some defined tables?
thanks for the valuable information :)
Thank’s A lot. For method#2 : it works!
To empty the database in MySql just go to the database and select the all tables (checkbox on of all tables) then select the “empty” action just down from the table names, then click “GO” button just right side of action selected .
Call me paranoid, but I don’t like to put my database password in scripts. So I replaced the definition of MPASS with
Thanks for nice ppost
simply rite click on databas and delete and chek on close connection :)
Had to put the table name in quotes in the for loop:
$MYSQL -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e “drop table \`$t\`”
Yep, me too. Wish I had read this far down the comments lol
I use the script all the time to save me from needing to add privileges again if I’m clearing out a db. Thanks a lot.
thanks, exactly what I was looking for. I used this to replace my WordPress database.
is it possible to use simple truncate on database?
little mod for remote hosts:
#!/bin/bash MUSER="$1" MPASS="$2" MDB="$3" HOST="$4" # Detect paths MYSQL=$(which mysql) AWK=$(which awk) GREP=$(which grep) if [ $# -ne 4 ] then echo "Usage: $0 {MySQL-User-Name} {MySQL-User-Password} {MySQL-Database-Name} {MySQL-Database-Host}" echo "Drops all tables from a MySQL" exit 1 fi TABLES=$($MYSQL -h $HOST -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e 'show tables' | $AWK '{ print $1}' | $GREP -v '^Tables' ) for t in $TABLES do echo "Deleting $t table from $MDB database..." $MYSQL -h $HOST -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e "drop table $t" doneCombined Lon F. Binder, Sutharsan, and Andrea De Pirro’s suggestions into one script, using getopt to make the DB host and port optional:
#!/bin/bash usage() { cat <<EOF usage: $0 options WARNING! This script will drop all tables from a MySQL database OPTIONS: -u Database username -d Database/schema name -h Host name (optional) -p Port (optional) EOF } USERNAME= DBSCHEMA= HOST= PORT= # Read options from command line while getopts “u:d:h:p†OPTION do case $OPTION in u) USERNAME=$OPTARG ;; d) DBSCHEMA=$OPTARG ;; h) HOST=$OPTARG ;; p) PORT=$OPTARG ;; ?) usage exit ;; esac done # Make sure all required options are supplied if [[ -z $USERNAME ]] || [[ -z $DBSCHEMA ]] then usage exit 1 fi # Read password from stdin read -s -p "Your database password: " PASSWORD # Construct MySQL command line options MYSQL_OPTS="--user=$USERNAME --password=$PASSWORD" if [[ ! -z $HOST ]] then MYSQL_OPTS="$MYSQL_OPTS --host=$HOST" fi if [[ ! -z $PORT ]] then MYSQL_OPTS="$MYSQL_OPTS --port=$PORT" fi # Get the table names TABLES=$(mysql $MYSQL_OPTS -BNe "show tables" $DBSCHEMA | tr '\n' ',' | sed -e 's/,$//' | awk '{print "SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;DROP TABLE IF EXISTS " $1 ";SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;"}') # Actually drop the tables mysql $MYSQL_OPTS -BNe "$TABLES" $DBSCHEMAThe script method worked like a charm on cento6.
In case the
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$ ./drop.table.sh tom jerry quiz
———————–
doesnt work, since don’t have root access, you can also do it with the simple sh command.
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[[email protected]] sh drop.table.sh tom jerry quiz [enter]
———————-
Nice script. I changed it to drop all the views from a database. If you wanna see it, I posted at:
stackoverflow.com
JUST BE CAREFUL!
I just wanted to delete my records from the tables not the tables itself and stored procedures! But I have deleted the whole database with this command.
Is there any way to recover ?
Great! Keep it up
wooow, thank you soo much this really helped me
thanks for sharing.. i’ve been searching for the answer for months
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0; SET @tables = NULL; SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(table_schema, '.', table_name) INTO @tables FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema = 'database-name-here'; -- specify DB name here. SET @tables = CONCAT('DROP TABLE ', @tables); PREPARE stmt FROM @tables; EXECUTE stmt; DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt; SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;Source here
I have an old Staff Attendance Program. There is a Master Program and all connected to msyql database. When I tried to open the Staff Attendance Program a message box pops up…”This program was last run on 12-Feb-2029. Current server date is 20-Mar-2014. Admin should change the server date.” When I opened the mysql tables to check, I can see a calendar table for year 2029. How to go about solving the problem please?
I am the headmaster of the school and I dont have any technical knowledge. Help please.
Thanks.
patricklee
The shell script worked like a charm. Thanks!
Worked perfectly. I made a few tweaks — added the hostname and put the password as the last argument. The modified one is below in case it is interesting to someone…
#!/bin/bash HOST="$1" MUSER="$2" MDB="$3" MPASS="$4" # Detect paths MYSQL=$(which mysql) AWK=$(which awk) GREP=$(which grep) if [ $# -ne 4 ] then echo "Usage: $0 {MySQL-Host-Name} {MySQL-User-Name} {MySQL-Database-Name} {MySQL-User-Password}" echo "Drops all tables from a MySQL" exit 1 fi TABLES=$($MYSQL -h $HOST -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e 'show tables' | $AWK '{ print $1}' | $GREP -v '^Tables' ) for t in $TABLES do echo "Deleting $t table from $MDB database..." $MYSQL -h $HOST -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e "drop table $t" doneIf you want to force delete the tables even if they are any foreign key relation exists , just update the line
$MYSQL -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e “drop table $t”
to
$MYSQL -u $MUSER -p$MPASS $MDB -e “SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;drop table $t”
In case you don’t want to post your database password in clear text in the terminal (also added requirement for host designation:
#!/bin/bash MUSER="$1" MDB="$2" MDBS="$3" # Detect paths MYSQL=$(which mysql) AWK=$(which awk) GREP=$(which grep) if [ $# -ne 3 ] then echo "Usage: $0 {MySQL-User-Name} {MySQL-Database-Name} {MySQL-Database-Server}" echo "Drops all tables from a MySQL" exit 1 fi echo -e "Please enter MySQL password for $MUSER" read -s MPASS TABLES=$($MYSQL -u $MUSER -p$MPASS -D $MDB -h $MDBS -e 'show tables' | $AWK '{ print $1}' | $GREP -v '^Tables' ) for t in $TABLES do echo "Deleting $t table from $MDB database..." $MYSQL -u $MUSER -p$MPASS -D $MDB -h $MDBS -e "drop table $t" doneDon’t forget about procedures, triggers, events…