Delete Specific Rows in a Table with MySQL

To delete only specific rows, use MySQL NOT IN(). Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable1830
     (
     StudentId int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
     StudentName varchar(20)
     )AUTO_INCREMENT=101;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable1830(StudentName) values('Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1830(StudentName) values('David');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1830(StudentName) values('Mike');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1830(StudentName) values('Sam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1830(StudentName) values('Bob');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select * from DemoTable1830;

This will produce the following output −

+-----------+-------------+
| StudentId | StudentName |
+-----------+-------------+
|       101 | Chris       |
|       102 | David       |
|       103 | Mike        |
|       104 | Sam         |
|       105 | Bob         |
+-----------+-------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to delete only specific rows −

mysql> delete from DemoTable1830
     where StudentId NOT IN('101','103','105');
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Let us check the table records once again:

mysql> select * from DemoTable1830;

This will produce the following output −

+-----------+-------------+
| StudentId | StudentName |
+-----------+-------------+
|       101 | Chris       |
|       103 | Mike        |
|       105 | Bob         |
+-----------+-------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)