Delete and update from for T-SQL

This topic provides reference information about feature compatibility between Microsoft SQL Server 2019 and Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, specifically focusing on DELETE and UPDATE statements with JOINs. You can understand the differences in syntax and functionality when migrating from SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL. The topic highlights that while SQL Server supports an extended syntax for DELETE and UPDATE statements with additional FROM clauses, Aurora PostgreSQL has limitations in this area.

Feature compatibility	AWS SCT / AWS DMS automation level	AWS SCT action code index	Key differences
		N/A	PostgreSQL doesn’t support DELETE …​ FROM from_list. Rewrite to use subqueries.

SQL Server Usage

SQL Server supports an extension to the ANSI standard that allows using an additional FROM clause in UPDATE and DELETE statements.

You can use this additional FROM clause to limit the number of modified rows by joining the table being updated, or deleted from, to one or more other tables. This functionality is similar to using a WHERE clause with a derived table sub-query. For UPDATE, you can use this syntax to set multiple column values simultaneously without repeating the sub-query for every column.

However, these statements can introduce logical inconsistencies if a row in an updated table is matched to more than one row in a joined table. The current implementation chooses an arbitrary value from the set of potential values and is non-deterministic.

Syntax

UPDATE <Table Name>
SET <Column Name> = <Expression> ,...
FROM <Table Source>
WHERE <Filter Predicate>;

DELETE FROM <Table Name>
FROM <Table Source>
WHERE <Filter Predicate>;

Examples

The following example deletes customers with no orders.

CREATE TABLE Customers
(
  Customer VARCHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY
);

INSERT INTO Customers VALUES
('John'),
('Jim'),
('Jack')

CREATE TABLE Orders
(
  OrderID INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
  Customer VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
  OrderDate DATE NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO Orders (OrderID, Customer, OrderDate) VALUES
(1, 'Jim', '20180401'),
(2, 'Jack', '20180402');

DELETE FROM Customers
FROM Customers AS C
  LEFT OUTER JOIN
  Orders AS O
  ON O.Customer = C.Customer
WHERE O.OrderID IS NULL;

SELECT *
FROM Customers;

Customer
Jim
Jack

The following example updates multiple columns in Orders based on the values in OrderCorrections.

CREATE TABLE OrderCorrections
(
  OrderID INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
  Customer VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
  OrderDate DATE NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO OrderCorrections
VALUES (1, 'Jack', '20180324');

UPDATE O
SET Customer = OC.Customer,
  OrderDate = OC.OrderDate
FROM Orders AS O
  INNER JOIN
  OrderCorrections AS OC
  ON O.OrderID = OC.OrderID;

SELECT *
FROM Orders;

Customer  OrderDate
Jack      2018-03-24
Jack      2018-04-02

For more information, see UPDATE (Transact-SQL), DELETE (Transact-SQL), and FROM clause plus JOIN, APPLY, PIVOT (Transact-SQL) in the SQL Server documentation.

PostgreSQL Usage

Aurora PostgreSQL doesn’t support the DELETE..FROM syntax, but it support the UPDATE FROM syntax.

Syntax

[ WITH [ RECURSIVE ] with_query [, ...] ]
UPDATE [ ONLY ] table_name [ * ] [ [ AS ] alias ]
  SET { column_name = { expression | DEFAULT } |
    ( column_name [, ...] ) = ( { expression | DEFAULT } [, ...] ) |
    ( column_name [, ...] ) = ( sub-SELECT )
  } [, ...]
  [ FROM from_list ]
  [ WHERE condition | WHERE CURRENT OF cursor_name ]
  [ RETURNING * | output_expression [ [ AS ] output_name ] [, ...] ]

Migration Considerations

You can rewrite the DELETE statements as subqueries. Place the subqueries in the WHERE clause. This workaround is simple and, in most cases, easier to read and understand.

Examples

The following example deletes customers with no orders.

CREATE TABLE Customers
(
  Customer VARCHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY
);

INSERT INTO Customers
VALUES
('John'),
('Jim'),
('Jack')

CREATE TABLE Orders
(
  OrderID INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
  Customer VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
  OrderDate DATE NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO Orders (OrderID, Customer, OrderDate)
VALUES
(1, 'Jim', '20180401'),
(2, 'Jack', '20180402');

DELETE FROM Customers
WHERE Customer NOT IN (
  SELECT Customer
  FROM Orders
);

SELECT * FROM Customers;

Customer
Jim
Jack

The following example updates multiple columns in Orders based on the values in OrderCorrections

CREATE TABLE OrderCorrections
(
  OrderID INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
  Customer VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
  OrderDate DATE NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO OrderCorrections
VALUES (1, 'Jack', '20180324');

UPDATE orders
SET Customer = OC.Customer,
  OrderDate = OC.OrderDate
FROM Orders AS O
  INNER JOIN
  OrderCorrections AS OC
  ON O.OrderID = OC.OrderID;

SELECT *
FROM Orders;

Customer  OrderDate
Jack      2018-03-24
Jack      2018-04-02

Summary

The following table identifies similarities, differences, and key migration considerations.

Feature	SQL Server	Aurora PostgreSQL
Join as part of DELETE	DELETE FROM …​ FROM	Not available. Rewrite to use WHERE clause with a sub-query.
Join as part of UPDATE	UPDATE …​ FROM	UPDATE …​ FROM

For more information, see DELETE and UPDATE in the PostgreSQL documentation.