delete()

Syntax

DeleteResult[] = connection.delete(ID[] ids);

Usage

Use delete() to delete one or more existing records, such as individual accounts or contacts, in your organization’s data. The delete() call is analogous to the DELETE statement in SQL.

Rules and Guidelines

When deleting objects, consider the following rules and guidelines:

• Your client application must be logged in with sufficient access rights to delete individual objects within the specified object. For more information, see Factors that Affect Data Access.
• In addition, you might also need permission to access this object’s parent object. For special access requirements, see the object’s description in Standard Objects.
• To ensure referential integrity, the delete() call supports cascading deletions. If you delete a parent object, you delete its children automatically, as long as each child object can be deleted. For example, if you delete a Case, the API automatically deletes any CaseComment, CaseHistory, and CaseSolution objects associated with that case. However, if a CaseComment is not deletable or is currently being used, then the delete() call on the parent Case will fail.
• Certain objects cannot be deleted via the API. To delete an object via the delete() call, its object must be configured as deletable (deletable is true) . To determine whether a given object can be deleted, your client application can invoke the describeSObjects() call on the object and inspect its deletable property.
• You can't delete records for multiple object types in one call if one of those types is related to a feature in the Setup area in Salesforce. The only exceptions are the following objects:
  • Custom settings objects, which are similar to custom objects. For more information, see “Custom Settings Overview” in the Salesforce online help.
  • GroupMember
  • Group
  • User

Rollback on Error

The AllOrNoneHeader header allows you to roll back all changes unless all records are processed successfully. This header is available in API version 20.0 and later. The default behavior is to allow partial success of a call: records without errors are committed, while records with errors are marked as failed in the call results.

Basic Steps for Deleting Records

Deleting records involves the following basic steps:

1. Determine the ID of each record that you want to delete. For example, you might call query() to retrieve a set of records that you want to delete based on specific criteria.
2. Construct an ID[] array and populate it with the IDs of each record that you want to delete. You can specify the IDs of different types of objects in the same call. For example, you could specify the ID for an individual Account and an individual Contact in the same array. For information on IDs, see ID Field Type.
3. Call delete(), passing in the ID[] array.
4. Process the results in the DeleteResult[] to verify whether the records have been successfully deleted.

Sample Code—Java

This sample shows how to delete records based on record IDs. The method in this sample accepts an array of IDs, which it passes to the delete() call and makes the call. It then parses the results and writes the IDs of the deleted records to the console or the first returned error if the deletion failed.

public void deleteRecords(String[] ids) {
   try {
      DeleteResult[] deleteResults = connection.delete(ids);
      for (int i = 0; i < deleteResults.length; i++) {
         DeleteResult deleteResult = deleteResults[i];
         if (deleteResult.isSuccess()) {
            System.out
                  .println("Deleted Record ID: " + deleteResult.getId());
         } else {
            // Handle the errors.
            // We just print the first error out for sample purposes.
            Error[] errors = deleteResult.getErrors();
            if (errors.length > 0) {
               System.out.println("Error: could not delete " + "Record ID "
                     + deleteResult.getId() + ".");
               System.out.println("   The error reported was: ("
                     + errors[0].getStatusCode() + ") "
                     + errors[0].getMessage() + "\n");
            }
         }
      }
   } catch (ConnectionException ce) {
      ce.printStackTrace();
   }
}

Sample Code—C#

This sample shows how to delete records based on record IDs. The method in this sample accepts an array of IDs, which it passes to the delete() call and makes the call. It then parses the results and writes the IDs of the deleted records to the console or the first returned error if the deletion failed.

public void deleteRecords(String[] ids)
{
   try
   {
      DeleteResult[] deleteResults = binding.delete(ids);
      for (int i = 0; i < deleteResults.Length; i++)
      {
         DeleteResult deleteResult = deleteResults[i];
         if (deleteResult.success)
         {
            Console.WriteLine("Deleted Record ID: " + deleteResult.id);
         }
         else
         {
            // Handle the errors.
            // We just print the first error out for sample purposes.
            Error[] errors = deleteResult.errors;
            if (errors.Length > 0)
            {
               Console.WriteLine("Error: could not delete " + "Record ID "
                     + deleteResult.id + ".");
               Console.WriteLine("   The error reported was: ("
                     + errors[0].statusCode + ") "
                     + errors[0].message + "\n");
            }
         }
      }
   }
   catch (SoapException e)
   {
      Console.WriteLine("An unexpected error has occurred: " +
                              e.Message + "\n" + e.StackTrace);
   }
}

Arguments

Response

DeleteResult[]

Faults

InvalidSObjectFault