T-SQL TRUNCATE TABLE Statement - Removing All Data From a Database Table

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Introduction

The TRUNCATE statement is used for removing all records from a table. The TRUNCATE statement is not a logged transaction. The TRUNCATE Statement has a simple syntax:

TRUNCATE tablename

Example

In this example we will assume that the 'Employees' table contains the follow columns: 'Name', 'Position', 'Office' and 'Salary'. SELECT *
FROM Employees
Here is a sample resultset from the above SELECT query:

Name	Position	Office	Salary
Joe Grape	Manager	Houston	80000
John Plum	Software Developer	Houston	65000
Frank Apple	Software Developer	Cleveland	62000
Patty Pineapple	Software Developer	Cleveland	60000
Judy Peach	Software Developer	Boston	50000
Jane Orange	Project Manager	Houston	75000

We'll use the TRUNCATE statement to remove all the records from the table. TRUNCATE TABLE Employees

Now we'll try to query the table again. We will find out that there are no longer any rows in the table. SELECT *
FROM Employees