Entity Framework. Delete all rows in table

How can I quickly remove all rows in the table using Entity Framework?

I am currently using:

var rows = from o in dataDb.Table
		   select o;
foreach (var row in rows)
{
	dataDb.Table.Remove(row);
}
dataDb.SaveChanges();

However, it takes a long time to execute.

Are there any alternatives?

For those that are googling this and ended up here like me, this is how you currently do it in EF5 and EF6:

context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("TRUNCATE TABLE [TableName]");

Assuming context is a System.Data.Entity.DbContext

Warning: The following is only suitable for small tables (think < 1000 rows)

Here is a solution that uses entity framework (not SQL) to delete the rows, so it is not SQL Engine(R/DBM) specific.

This assumes that you're doing this for testing or some similar situation. Either

• The amount of data is small or
• The performance doesn't matter

---

Simply call:

VotingContext.Votes.RemoveRange(VotingContext.Votes);

---

Assuming this context:

public class VotingContext : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<Vote> Votes{get;set;}
    public DbSet<Poll> Polls{get;set;}
    public DbSet<Voter> Voters{get;set;}
    public DbSet<Candidacy> Candidates{get;set;}
}

For tidier code you can declare the following extension method:

public static class EntityExtensions
{
    public static void Clear<T>(this DbSet<T> dbSet) where T : class
    {
        dbSet.RemoveRange(dbSet);
    }
}

Then the above becomes:

VotingContext.Votes.Clear();
VotingContext.Voters.Clear();
VotingContext.Candidacy.Clear();
VotingContext.Polls.Clear();
await VotingTestContext.SaveChangesAsync();

I recently used this approach to clean up my test database for each testcase run (it´s obviously faster than recreating the DB from scratch each time, though I didn´t check the form of the delete commands that were generated).

---

Why can it be slow?

1. EF will get ALL the rows (VotingContext.Votes)
2. and then will use their IDs (not sure exactly how, doesn't matter), to delete them.

So if you're working with serious amount of data you'll kill the SQL server process (it will consume all the memory) and same thing for the IIS process since EF will cache all the data same way as SQL server. Don't use this one if your table contains serious amount of data.

Using SQL's TRUNCATE TABLE command will be the fastest as it operates on the table and not on individual rows.

dataDb.ExecuteStoreCommand("TRUNCATE TABLE [Table]");

Assuming dataDb is a DbContext (not an ObjectContext), you can wrap it and use the method like this:

var objCtx = ((System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.IObjectContextAdapter)dataDb).ObjectContext;
objCtx.ExecuteStoreCommand("TRUNCATE TABLE [Table]");

var all = from c in dataDb.Table select c;
dataDb.Table.RemoveRange(all);
dataDb.SaveChanges();

using (var context = new DataDb())
{
     var ctx = ((System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.IObjectContextAdapter)context).ObjectContext;
     ctx.ExecuteStoreCommand("DELETE FROM [TableName] WHERE Name= {0}", Name);
}

or

using (var context = new DataDb())
{
     context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("TRUNCATE TABLE [TableName]");
}

You can do that without Foreach

dataDB.Table.RemoveRange(dataDB.Table);
dataDB.SaveChanges();

This will remove all rows

This avoids using any sql

using (var context = new MyDbContext())
{
	var itemsToDelete = context.Set<MyTable>();
	context.MyTables.RemoveRange(itemsToDelete);
	context.SaveChanges();
}

I came across this question when I had to deal with a particular case: fully updating of content in a "leaf" table (no FKs pointing to it). This involved removing all rows and putting new rows information and it should be done transactionally (I do not want to end up with an empty table, if inserts fails for whatever reason).

I have tried the public static void Clear<T>(this DbSet<T> dbSet) approach, but new rows are not inserted. Another disadvante is that the whole process is slow, as rows are deleted one by one.

So, I have switched to TRUNCATE approach, since it is much faster and it is also ROLLBACKable. It also resets the identity.

Example using repository pattern:

public class Repository<T> : IRepository<T> where T : class, new()
{
    private readonly IEfDbContext _context;

    public void BulkInsert(IEnumerable<T> entities)
    {
        _context.BulkInsert(entities);
    }

    public void Truncate()
    {
        _context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand($"TRUNCATE TABLE {typeof(T).Name}");
    }
 }

 // usage 
 DataAccess.TheRepository.Truncate();
 var toAddBulk = new List<EnvironmentXImportingSystem>();

 // fill toAddBulk from source system
 // ...

 DataAccess.TheRepository.BulkInsert(toAddBulk);
 DataAccess.SaveChanges();

Of course, as already mentioned, this solution cannot be used by tables referenced by foreign keys (TRUNCATE fails).

context.TableName.RemoveRange(context.TableName);
context.SaveChanges();

If

using(var db = new MyDbContext())
{
    await db.Database.ExecuteSqlCommandAsync(@"TRUNCATE TABLE MyTable"););
}

causes

> Cannot truncate table 'MyTable' because it is being referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint.

I use this:

using(var db = new MyDbContext())
{
    await db.Database.ExecuteSqlCommandAsync(@"DELETE FROM MyTable WHERE ID != -1");
}

var data = (from n in db.users select n);
db.users.RemoveRange(data);
db.SaveChanges();

If you wish to clear your entire database.

Because of the foreign-key constraints it matters which sequence the tables are truncated. This is a way to bruteforce this sequence.

    public static void ClearDatabase<T>() where T : DbContext, new()
    {
        using (var context = new T())
        {
            var tableNames = context.Database.SqlQuery<string>("SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE' AND TABLE_NAME NOT LIKE '%Migration%'").ToList();
            foreach (var tableName in tableNames)
            {
                foreach (var t in tableNames)
                {
                    try
                    {

                        if (context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand(string.Format("TRUNCATE TABLE [{0}]", tableName)) == 1)
                            break;

                    }
                    catch (Exception ex)
                    {

                    }
                }
            }

            context.SaveChanges();
        }
    }

usage:

ClearDatabase<ApplicationDbContext>();

remember to reinstantiate your DbContext after this.

The following works on SQLite database (using Entity Framework).

It seems that the fastest way to clear all the db tables is using context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("some SQL"), as some comments above highlighted as well. Here I am going to show how to reset the 'index' count of tables too.

context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("delete from TableA");
context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("delete from sqlite_sequence where name='TableA'");//resets the autoindex

context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("delete from TableB");
context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("delete from sqlite_sequence where name='TableB'");//resets the autoindex 

context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("delete from TableC");
context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("delete from sqlite_sequence where name='TableC'");//resets the autoindex 

One important point is that if you use foreign keys in your tables, you must first delete the child table before the parent table, so the sequence (hierarchy) of tables during deletion is important, otherwise a SQLite exception may occur.

Note: var context = new YourContext()

In EFCore (version i am using is 3.1) you can use the following to remove all rows -

context.Database.ExecuteSqlRaw("TRUNCATE TABLE [TableName]");

This works for me... EF v3.1.5

context.ModelName.RemoveRange(context.ModelName.ToList());
context.SaveChanges();

This works Properly in EF 5:

YourEntityModel myEntities = new YourEntityModel();

var objCtx = ((IObjectContextAdapter)myEntities).ObjectContext;
objCtx.ExecuteStoreCommand("TRUNCATE TABLE [TableName]");

Works for EF Core 3

public static class EntityExtensions
{
    public static async Task ClearAsync<T>(this DbSet<T> dbSet) where T : class
    {
        var command = dbSet.CreateDbCommand();
        command.CommandText = $"TRUNCATE TABLE {dbSet.EntityType.GetSchema()}.{dbSet.EntityType.GetTableName()}";
        await command.ExecuteNonQueryAsync();
    }
}

but please note that dbSet.CreateDbCommand is an extension

Delete all records. Do not reset the primary index like "truncate".

/// <summary>
/// SET - DELETE all record by table - no truncate - return deleted records
/// </summary>
public static int setListDelAllMYTABLE()
{
    // INIT
    int retObj = 0;
    using (MYDBEntities ctx = new MYDBEntities())
    {
        // GET - all record
        var tempAllRecord = ctx.MYTABLE.ToList();
        // RESET
        ctx.MYTABLE.RemoveRange(tempAllRecord);
        // SET - final save
        retObj += ctx.SaveChanges();
    }
    // RET
    return retObj;
}

In my code I didn't really have nice access to the Database object, so you can do it on the DbSet where you also is allowed to use any kind of sql. It will sort of end out like this:

var p = await _db.Persons.FromSql("truncate table Persons;select top 0 * from Persons").ToListAsync();

If MVC, you can do:

public async Task<IActionResult> DeleteAll()
{
    var list = await _context.YourClass.ToListAsync();
    _context.YourClass.RemoveRange(list);
    await _context.SaveChangesAsync();
    return RedirectToAction(nameof(Index));
}

Make sure when you are trying to delete parent all children will cascade on delete. Or children have nullable foreign key.

var list = db.Discounts.ToList().Select(x => x as Discount);
foreach (var item in list)
{
    db.Discounts.Remove(item);
}
db.SaveChanges();

Here is a variation on the popular solution by Ron that avoids the use of hardcoded string table names by taking advantage of another popular solution on stack overflow for determining the underlying table name for an entity framework class.

With these extension methods the solution looks like this:

_dbContext.TruncateTable<TheTableName>();

(use this.TruncateTable<... if you're editing code within an EF DBContext class or partial class file)

And here's the extension class:

public static class EntityFrameworkExtensions
{
    private static string ParseTableNameFromSQL(string sql)
    {
        Regex regex = new Regex("FROM (?<table>.*) AS");
        Match match = regex.Match(sql);

        string table = match.Groups["table"].Value;
        return table;
    }
    
    public static string GetTableName<T>(this IObjectContextAdapter context) where T : class =>
        ParseTableNameFromSQL(context.ObjectContext.CreateObjectSet<T>().ToTraceString());
    
    public static void TruncateTable<T>(this DbContext dbContext) where T : class =>
        dbContext.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand($"TRUNCATE TABLE {dbContext.GetTableName<T>()}");

    public static void DeleteAllTableRows<T>(this DbContext dbContext) where T : class =>
        dbContext.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand($"DELETE FROM {dbContext.GetTableName<T>()}");
}

The last extension method DeleteAllTableRows is a useful alternative if your table cannot be truncated (e.g. due to foreign key references) - this is still much faster than the Entity Framework RemoveAll alternative.

There are several issues with pretty much all the answers here:

1] Hard-coded sql. Will brackets work on all database engines?
2] Entity framework Remove and RemoveRange calls. This loads all entities into memory affected by the operation. Yikes.
3] Truncate table. Breaks with foreign key references and may not work accross all database engines.

Use https://entityframework-plus.net/, they handle the cross database platform stuff, translate the delete into the correct sql statement and don't load entities into memory, and the library is free and open source.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the nuget package. They do offer a paid version that does even more stuff.