Truncate command will delete all records and the most important thing to make note of truncate command is since truncate command cannot be rolled back one must make sure to take proper backup of table data before performing the truncate command. Truncate command is thus used to remove all rows from either a table or a cluster. If one wants to use the truncate command in a cluster they can use it only in an indexed cluster and not in a hash cluster.

Since the truncate command generates no rollback information they are faster than delete command. Though the functionality of delete and truncate looks on the outward same the main differences between truncate and delete statements are truncate is a DDL statement whereas delete is a DML statement. Truncate command cannot be rolled back but delete command can be rolled back. As a result, as explained before truncate command is faster than delete command. Another main difference between delete and truncate command is delete command can be used with a where clause to delete specific rows from a table. If the where clause is not specified in a delete statement, all rows are deleted from the table. Thus delete command can be used to delete specific or all rows from a table. But truncate command deletes all rows from the table.

The general syntax of truncate command is

TRUNCATE TABLE tablename;

For instance if one wished to truncate a table named as exforsys it is done by using the command as follows:

TRUNCATE TABLE exforsys;