Deleting all records in a database table

Question

How do I delete all records in one of my database tables in a Ruby on Rails app?

Answer 1

If you are looking for a way to it without SQL you should be able to use delete_all.

Post.delete_all 

or with a criteria

Post.delete_all "person_id = 5 AND (category = 'Something' OR category = 'Else')" 

See here for more information.

The records are deleted without loading them first which makes it very fast but will break functionality like counter cache that depends on rails code to be executed upon deletion.

Answer 2

To delete via SQL

Item.delete_all # accepts optional conditions

To delete by calling each model's destroy method (expensive but ensures callbacks are called)

Item.destroy_all # accepts optional conditions

All here