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RE: Tips for Optimizing Data Manipulation Language

WesleyB — Wed, 04 May 2005 01:06:00 GMT

TRUNCATE TABLE is logged but in a different way than a normal DELETE.

From BOL: "The DELETE statement removes rows one at a time and records an entry in the transaction log for each deleted row. TRUNCATE TABLE removes the data by deallocating the data pages used to store the table's data, and only the page deallocations are recorded in the transaction log."

It is perfectly possible to rollback a truncate table.

create table test (f varchar(10))

insert into test values ('truncate')insert into test values ('table')

BEGIN TRANTRUNCATE TABLE testSELECT * FROM testROLLBACK TRAN

SELECT * FROM test

drop table test

I also don't understand the 'invalidates transaction log' statement. Could you elaborate this please?

RE: Tips for Optimizing Data Manipulation Language

JOSEPH HOGG-230209 — Tue, 03 May 2005 14:21:00 GMT

Hey,

Thanks for the info,

I thing Xavier comments are not 100% accurate. I just wanted to clarify.

This is from SQL Help. Truncate table is not logged see below

Thanks

Joe

TRUNCATE TABLE is functionally identical to DELETE statement with no WHERE clause: both remove all rows in the table. But TRUNCATE TABLE is faster and uses fewer system and transaction log resources than DELETE.

The DELETE statement removes rows one at a time and records an entry in the transaction log for each deleted row. TRUNCATE TABLE removes the data by deallocating the data pages used to store the table's data, and only the page deallocations are recorded in the transaction log.

TRUNCATE TABLE removes all rows from a table, but the table structure and its columns, constraints, indexes and so on remain. The counter used by an identity for new rows is reset to the seed for the column. If you want to retain the identity counter, use DELETE instead. If you want to remove table definition and its data, use the DROP TABLE statement.

You cannot use TRUNCATE TABLE on a table referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint; instead, use DELETE statement without a WHERE clause. Because TRUNCATE TABLE is not logged, it cannot activate a trigger.

TRUNCATE TABLE may not be used on tables participating in an indexed view.

RE: Tips for Optimizing Data Manipulation Language

xblondel — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:31:00 GMT

Hi!

Thanks for this worthy article.

I have a question about it: the author states that TRUNCATE TABLE "invalidates the transaction log". I'm certainly missing the point here; indeed, TRUNCATE TABLE is a fully logged operation that can, for instance, be rollbacked.

The three troubles underlined, in the BOL, with TRUNCATE TABLE are:

It resets IDENTITY columns to the seed.
It cannot be used on a table referenced by a FOREIGN KEY.
It cannot activate a trigger.

Kalpesh, maybe you meant one of these three?

Thanks!

Xavier

RE: Tips for Optimizing Data Manipulation Language

Gary E. Vernon — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:48:00 GMT

Great article but I would add a caution on using query hints as they can become invalid as data changes.

RE: Tips for Optimizing Data Manipulation Language

Greg Johnson-186398 — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 07:34:00 GMT

that article is bookmark worthy. thanks Kalpesh.

Tips for Optimizing Data Manipulation Language

Kalpesh-198559 — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 20:24:00 GMT

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