What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE in SQL?

Both commands remove data from a table, but they work very differently under the hood.

DELETE

• Can target specific rows using a WHERE clause
• Logged row-by-row, so it can typically be rolled back within a transaction
• Slower on large tables, since each row deletion is tracked individually

TRUNCATE

• Removes all rows in the table — no WHERE clause in standard SQL
• Much faster, since it deallocates the data pages rather than logging each row
• Resets auto-increment counters in many database systems, which DELETE does not

If you need to remove only some rows, DELETE is the right tool. If you need to quickly empty an entire table while keeping its structure, TRUNCATE is typically faster.