Delete

Jump to the Code block for a combined complete example.

Setup

The following examples will use the setup below to illustrate single record deletion in an Aerospike database.

const Aerospike = require('aerospike');

// Define host configuration
let config = {hosts: '127.0.0.1:3000'};

// Creates a key with the namespace "sandbox", set "ufodata", and user key 5001
let key = new Aerospike.Key('sandbox', 'ufodata', 5001);

Policies

Just as Create and Update, Delete utilizes write policies that can be defined per command.

The following example creates a write policy that enables durable deletes.

// Can use a previously defined write policy or create a new one
let deletePolicy = new Aerospike.WritePolicy({
    durableDelete: true
});

Note

Record deletion can also be controlled through expiration, a write policy that defines the time-to-live (ttl), or number of seconds a record will live before being removed by the server. The default ttl is to live forever.

Refer to Data Retention for more information.

Delete a record

Default policy

Aerospike deletes a record efficiently by only dropping the primary index entry. The record space on device is recovered during garbage collection.

The following example shows how to delete a record using the default write policy.

Caution

Using the default write policy could result in having previously persisted versions of deleted objects resurrected upon a cold restart of the namespace. See Durable Deletes below for more information on preventing zombie records.

;(async () => {
    // Establishes a connection to the server
    let client = await Aerospike.connect(config);

    // Delete record with default write policy
    client.remove(key);

    // Close the connection to the server
    client.close();
})();

Note

Updating a bin value to null, when it is the only bin in the record, deletes the record. See Delete a Bin for information on setting a bin value to null.

Durable deletes

When a command results in deletion of a record and the durable delete write policy is set to true, a tombstone record is written to disk to prevent previous versions of the record from returning during a cold restart. Refer to Durable Deletes for more information.

The following example uses the write policy set above to durably delete a record.

;(async () => {
    // Establishes a connection to the server
    let client = await Aerospike.connect(config);

    // Durably delete a record with the write policy
    client.remove(key, deletePolicy);

    // Close the connection to the server
    client.close();
})();

Code block

Expand this section for a single code block to durably delete a record

const Aerospike = require('aerospike');

// Define host configuration
let config = {hosts: '127.0.0.1:3000'};

// Creates a key with the namespace "sandbox", set "ufodata", and user key 5001
let key = new Aerospike.Key('sandbox', 'ufodata', 5001);

// Can use a previously defined write policy or create a new one
let deletePolicy = new Aerospike.WritePolicy({
    durableDelete: true
});

;(async () => {
    // Establishes a connection to the server
    let client = await Aerospike.connect(config);

    // Durably delete a record with the write policy
    client.remove(key, deletePolicy);

    // Close the connection to the server
    client.close();
})();