When deleting a record, the deleted value needs to have primary key or it will trigger a Batch Delete, for example:
Generics API
ctx := context.Background()
// Delete by ID err := gorm.G[Email](db).Where("id = ?", 10).Delete(ctx) // DELETE from emails where id = 10;
// Delete with additional conditions err := gorm.G[Email](db).Where("id = ? AND name = ?", 10, "jinzhu").Delete(ctx) // DELETE from emails where id = 10 AND name = "jinzhu";
Traditional API
// Email's ID is `10` db.Delete(&email) // DELETE from emails where id = 10;
// Delete with additional conditions db.Where("name = ?", "jinzhu").Delete(&email) // DELETE from emails where id = 10 AND name = "jinzhu";
Delete with primary key
GORM allows to delete objects using primary key(s) with inline condition, it works with numbers, check out Query Inline Conditions for details
db.Delete(&User{}, 10) // DELETE FROM users WHERE id = 10;
db.Delete(&User{}, "10") // DELETE FROM users WHERE id = 10;
db.Delete(&users, []int{1,2,3}) // DELETE FROM users WHERE id IN (1,2,3);
Delete Hooks
GORM allows hooks BeforeDelete, AfterDelete, those methods will be called when deleting a record, refer Hooks for details
func(u *User) BeforeDelete(tx *gorm.DB) (err error) { if u.Role == "admin" { return errors.New("admin user not allowed to delete") } return }
Batch Delete
The specified value has no primary value, GORM will perform a batch delete, it will delete all matched records
Generics API
ctx := context.Background()
// Batch delete with conditions err := gorm.G[Email](db).Where("email LIKE ?", "%jinzhu%").Delete(ctx) // DELETE from emails where email LIKE "%jinzhu%";
Traditional API
db.Where("email LIKE ?", "%jinzhu%").Delete(&Email{}) // DELETE from emails where email LIKE "%jinzhu%";
db.Delete(&Email{}, "email LIKE ?", "%jinzhu%") // DELETE from emails where email LIKE "%jinzhu%";
To efficiently delete large number of records, pass a slice with primary keys to the Delete method.
var users = []User{{ID: 1}, {ID: 2}, {ID: 3}} db.Delete(&users) // DELETE FROM users WHERE id IN (1,2,3);
db.Delete(&users, "name LIKE ?", "%jinzhu%") // DELETE FROM users WHERE name LIKE "%jinzhu%" AND id IN (1,2,3);
Block Global Delete
If you perform a batch delete without any conditions, GORM WON’T run it, and will return ErrMissingWhereClause error
You have to use some conditions or use raw SQL or enable AllowGlobalUpdate mode, for example:
Generics API
ctx := context.Background()
// These will return error err := gorm.G[User](db).Delete(ctx) // gorm.ErrMissingWhereClause
// These will work err := gorm.G[User](db).Where("1 = 1").Delete(ctx) // DELETE FROM `users` WHERE 1=1
If your model includes a gorm.DeletedAt field (which is included in gorm.Model), it will get soft delete ability automatically!
When calling Delete, the record WON’T be removed from the database, but GORM will set the DeletedAt‘s value to the current time, and the data is not findable with normal Query methods anymore.
// user's ID is `111` db.Delete(&user) // UPDATE users SET deleted_at="2013-10-29 10:23" WHERE id = 111;
// Batch Delete db.Where("age = ?", 20).Delete(&User{}) // UPDATE users SET deleted_at="2013-10-29 10:23" WHERE age = 20;
// Soft deleted records will be ignored when querying db.Where("age = 20").Find(&user) // SELECT * FROM users WHERE age = 20 AND deleted_at IS NULL;
If you don’t want to include gorm.Model, you can enable the soft delete feature like:
type User struct { ID int Deleted gorm.DeletedAt Name string }
Find soft deleted records
You can find soft deleted records with Unscoped
db.Unscoped().Where("age = 20").Find(&users) // SELECT * FROM users WHERE age = 20;
Delete permanently
You can delete matched records permanently with Unscoped
db.Unscoped().Delete(&order) // DELETE FROM orders WHERE id=10;
Delete Flag
By default, gorm.Model uses *time.Time as the value for the DeletedAt field, and it provides other data formats support with plugin gorm.io/plugin/soft_delete
INFO when creating unique composite index for the DeletedAt field, you must use other data format like unix second/flag with plugin gorm.io/plugin/soft_delete‘s help, e.g:
import"gorm.io/plugin/soft_delete"
type User struct { ID uint Name string`gorm:"uniqueIndex:udx_name"` DeletedAt soft_delete.DeletedAt `gorm:"uniqueIndex:udx_name"` }
Unix Second
Use unix second as delete flag
import"gorm.io/plugin/soft_delete"
type User struct { ID uint Name string DeletedAt soft_delete.DeletedAt }
// Query SELECT * FROM users WHERE deleted_at = 0;
// Delete UPDATE users SET deleted_at = /* current unix second */ WHERE ID = 1;
You can also specify to use milli or nano seconds as the value, for example:
type User struct { ID uint Name string DeletedAt soft_delete.DeletedAt `gorm:"softDelete:milli"` // DeletedAt soft_delete.DeletedAt `gorm:"softDelete:nano"` }
// Query SELECT * FROM users WHERE deleted_at = 0;
// Delete UPDATE users SET deleted_at = /* current unix milli second or nano second */ WHERE ID = 1;
Use 1 / 0 AS Delete Flag
import"gorm.io/plugin/soft_delete"
type User struct { ID uint Name string IsDel soft_delete.DeletedAt `gorm:"softDelete:flag"` }
// Query SELECT * FROM users WHERE is_del = 0;
// Delete UPDATE users SET is_del = 1 WHERE ID = 1;
Mixed Mode
Mixed mode can use 0, 1 or unix seconds to mark data as deleted or not, and save the deleted time at the same time.
type User struct { ID uint Name string DeletedAt time.Time IsDel soft_delete.DeletedAt `gorm:"softDelete:flag,DeletedAtField:DeletedAt"`// use `1` `0` // IsDel soft_delete.DeletedAt `gorm:"softDelete:,DeletedAtField:DeletedAt"` // use `unix second` // IsDel soft_delete.DeletedAt `gorm:"softDelete:nano,DeletedAtField:DeletedAt"` // use `unix nano second` }
// Query SELECT * FROM users WHERE is_del = 0;
// Delete UPDATE users SET is_del = 1, deleted_at = /* current unix second */ WHERE ID = 1;