The SQL Procedure

DELETE Statement

Removes one or more rows from a table or view that is specified in the FROM clause.

Restriction:	You cannot use DELETE FROM on a table that is accessed by an engine that does not support UPDATE processing.
Featured in:	Combining Two Tables

DELETE

FROM table-name|sas/access-view|proc-sql-view <AS alias>

<WHERE sql-expression>;

Arguments

alias: assigns an alias to table-name, sas/access-view, or proc-sql-view.
sas/access-view: specifies a SAS/ACCESS view that you are deleting rows from.
proc-sql-view: specifies a PROC SQL view that you are deleting rows from. proc-sql-view can be a one-level name, a two-level libref.view name, or a physical pathname that is enclosed in single quotation marks.
sql-expression: See sql-expression.
table-name: specifies the table that you are deleting rows from. table-name can be a one-level name, a two-level libref.table name, or a physical pathname that is enclosed in single quotation marks.

CAUTION:

Recursive table references can cause data integrity problems.

While it is possible to recursively reference the target table of a DELETE statement, doing so can cause data integrity problems and incorrect results. Constructions such as the following should be avoided:

proc sql;
   delete from a
      where var1 > (select min(var2) from a);

[cautionend]

Deleting Rows through Views

You can delete one or more rows from a view's underlying table, with some restrictions. See Updating PROC SQL and SAS/ACCESS Views in the SAS 9.2 SQL Procedure User's Guide.

CAUTION:: If you omit a WHERE clause, then the DELETE statement deletes all the rows from the specified table or the table that is described by a view.

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