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Delete Instances of a Type
Delete Attribute Ownerships
Delete Role Players from Relations
Clients Guide
Summary

Delete Instances of a Type

To delete an instance of a type from the knowledge graph, we use a match clause followed by the delete keyword and statements indicating data to delete. To try the following examples with one of the TypeDB clients, follows these Clients Guide.

Match-Delete queries are NOT lazy: the match will be fully evaluated and answers recorded, and each answer will in turn have the operations specified in the delete clause applied. This avoids modifying the graph while traversing it.

[tab:TypeQL] ```typeql match $p isa person, has email "[email protected]"; delete $p isa person; ``` [tab:end] [tab:Java] ```java TypeQLDelete query = TypeQL.match( var("p").isa("person").has("email", "[email protected]") ).delete(var("p").isa("person")); ``` [tab:end]

This deletes a particular instance of the person type with the email [email protected]. We must write the isa clause to tell the parser to remove the instance of data represented by the variable $p. If we don’t know the type, we can usually use thing, the supertype of all data instances.

Deleting an instance of a relation type follows exactly the same style:

[tab:TypeQL] ```typeql match $org isa organisation, has name "Pharos"; $emp (employer: $org, employee: $p) isa employment; delete $emp isa employment; ``` [tab:end] [tab:Java] ```java TypeQLDelete query = TypeQL.match( var("org").isa("organisation").has("name", "Pharos"), var("emp").rel("employer", "org").rel("employee", "p").isa("employment") ).delete(var("emp").isa("employment")); ``` [tab:end]

This deletes all instances of the employment type where the employer is an organisation with name of "Pharos".

Attributes are normally owned by other concepts (ie. $x has attribute $a). This means we can both delete an attribute ownership, as in the next section, or delete the instance itself following the above style of using isa in the delete clause.

Delete Attribute Ownerships

We can remove the ownership of an attribute by another concept in the same way it is inserted or queried: using the has clause.

Note that attributes with the same value and type are shared among their owners. For this reason, usually, an attribute is not deleted directly.

[tab:TypeQL] ```typeql match $t isa travel, has start-date $st; $d 2013-12-22; delete $t has $st; ``` [tab:end] [tab:Java] ```java TypeQLDelete query = TypeQL.match( var("t").isa("travel").has("start-date", var("st")), var("st").eq(LocalDate.of(2013, 12, 22).atStartOfDay()) ).delete(var("t").has(var("st"))); ``` [tab:end]

This looks for a travel that owns the attribute start-date with the value of 2013-12-22 in the match clause. We then disassociate the travel instance $t from the attribute $st with the delete $t has $st clause.

This will not delete the entire instance of type start-date and value 2013-12-22 - it remains associated with any other instance that may own it.

If we had instead written the query as match $t isa travel, has start-date $st; $st == 2013-12-22"; delete $st isa start-date;, we would have deleted the instance of start-date with value 2013-12-22 and its association with all other concept types that previously owned it.

Note also that you must not specify a type for the attribute when deleting, as this creates a derived isa constraint on the attribute. You must use delete $t has $st, not delete $t has start-date $st.

Delete Role Players from Relations

In TypeDB, existing relations can be extended with new role players, or shrunk by removing role players. If an employer merged with another, we may have to reassign all existing employment relations to the new company.

To remove the old employer from the employment relation, we mirror the delete syntax with what the insert syntax for role players looks like.

[tab:TypeQL] ```typeql match $org isa organisation, has name "Pharos"; $emp (employer: $org, employee: $p) isa employment; delete $emp (employer: $org); ``` [tab:end] [tab:Java] ```java TypeQLDelete query = TypeQL.match( var("org").isa("organisation").has("name", "Pharos"), var("emp").rel("employer", "org").rel("employee", "p").isa("employment") ).delete(var("emp").rel("employer", "org")); ``` [tab:end]

This TypeQL query will find all employments where the employer is an organisation with the name Pharos. It will then remove the organisation from the employment relation. It is required to provide the role that the role player is playing in the delete statement. If the role is unknown, it is possible to use the generic role supertype in the delete block, though being as specific as possible is recommended.

Clients Guide

[Note] **For those developing with Client [Java](../client-api/java)**: Executing a `delete` query, is as simple as calling the [`query().delete()`](../client-api/java) method on a transaction and passing the query object to it.

[Note] **For those developing with Client [Node.js](../client-api/nodejs)**: Executing a `delete` query, is as simple as passing the TypeQL(string) query to the `query().delete()` function available on the [`transaction`](../client-api/nodejs#transaction) object.

[Note] **For those developing with Client [Python](../client-api/python)**: Executing a `delete` query, is as simple as passing the TypeQL(string) query to the `query().delete()` method available on the [`transaction`](../client-api/python#transaction) object.

Summary

The delete query preceded by a match clause is used to delete one or more facts from the knowledge graph.

We can delete instances by using $var isa [your type]: an isa will always indicate removal of an instance and all its edges. Additionally, we can remove just attribute ownerships using the has statement in the delete clause. Removing a role player from a relation can similarly be achieved by using role player syntax: delete $r (some_role: $player); without an isa statement.

Next, we learn how to update data in a TypeDB knowledge graph.