DELETE SELECT Statements

In order to handle performing multiple deletes in a single request to NetSuite, you may make use of the DELETE ... SELECT syntax for inserting a temporary table of data into NetSuite. This works by first populating a temporary table with the data you are going to submit to NetSuite. Once you have all of the data you want to delete, the temporary table is then passed into the table you are inserting to.

Populate the Temporary Table

The temporary table you are populating is dynamic and will be created at run time the first time you insert to it. Temporary tables are denoted by a # appearing in their name. When using a temporary table to delete, the temporary table must be named in the format [TableName]#TEMP, where TableName is the name of the table you will be inserting to. For instance:

INSERT INTO Account#TEMP (Id) VALUES ('AX1000001');
INSERT INTO Account#TEMP (Id) VALUES ('AX1000002');
INSERT INTO Account#TEMP (Id) VALUES ('AX1000003');

This will create a temporary table called Account#TEMP with one column and three rows of data. Since type cannot be determined on the temporary table itself, all values are stored in memory as strings. They will later be converted to the proper type when they are submitted to the Account table.

Delete from the Actual Table

Once your temporary table is populated, it is now time to insert to the actual table in NetSuite. You can do this by performing a DELETE from the actual table and selecting the input data from the temporary table. For instance:

DELETE FROM Account WHERE EXISTS SELECT Id FROM Account#TEMP

In this example, the full contents of the Account#TEMP table are passed into the Account table. This results in fewer requests being submitted to NetSuite since multiple deletes may be submitted with each request, which is much better for performance if you have many records to delete.

Results

The results of the query will be stored in the LastResultInfo#TEMP temporary table. This table will be cleared and repopulated the next time data is modified by passing in a temporary table. Please be aware that the LastResultInfo#TEMP table has no predefined schema. You will want to check its metadata at run time before reading data.

Temporary Table Life Span

Temporary tables will only last as long as the connection remains opened. When the connection to NetSuite is closed, all temporary tables will be cleared, including the LastResultInfo#TEMP table.