How to delete a record from a table without a primary key

[solomon prathap]

i want ideas to delete a record or set of records from a table using JDBC.Primary keys are not specified in the table.Can anybody tell me the logic for it.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Solomon,
How would you uniquely identify the record(s) to delete? Try describing this in words first. It can involve one or more columns. Then you can use SQL to delete.

Welcome to JavaRanch.

[Adeel Ansari]

no primary key then must be a unique constraint

[solomon prathap]

Originally posted by Jeanne Boyarsky:
Solomon,
How would you uniquely identify the record(s) to delete? Try describing this in words first. It can involve one or more columns. Then you can use SQL to delete.

Welcome to JavaRanch.

My problem is,I have 11 attributes in a table.There are 4 foriegn keys,no pk's.I have to delete a set of records(more than one ,at a time) ,by using composite keys.I have 3 criteria fields,based upon i have to first get a set of records,then i have to enable the no of checkbox to be ticked.eg.10 records are displayed,i want to delete 5 records ,by a single click.How this can be made ??

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Solomon,

delete from table where field1 = ? and field2 = ? and field3 = ?

You need to do this five times if there are five records to delete. Take a look at executeBatch() so you can do this in one database trip.

[Fisher Daniel]

Hi,
Maybe you can use code like this

  
private static final String strDelete = "delete from table where val_1 = ? and val_2 = ? and val_3 = ?";
 
public int[] deleteRecord(List objRec) throws SQLException {
   //Get connection
   Connection conn = getConnection();
  
   //set auto commit with 'false' value
   conn.setAutoCommit(false);
 
   //Retrieve prepared statement object
   PreparedStatement ps = conn.preparedStatement(strDelete);
   
   for (Iterator it=objRec.iterator(); it.hasNext() :wink:  {
      ValueObject obj = (ValueObject) it.next();
      
      //set every value into prepared statment
      ps.setString(1, obj.getVal1());
      ps.setString(2, obj.getVal2());
      ps.setString(3, obj.getVal3());
 
      //add into batch
      ps.addBatch();
   }
 
   int result[] = ps.executeBatch();
   conn.commit();
   ps.close();
   conn.close();
 
   return result;
}

Hope this help...
Correct me if i am wrong

thanks
daniel

[solomon prathap]

Hi Daniel Fisher

Tnx for ur code.Let me try this code.I will get back to u..