{"id":11660,"date":"2024-03-14T14:30:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T14:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-deleting-data-from-an-external-table-in-hive\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T15:09:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T15:09:33","slug":"what-is-the-method-for-deleting-data-from-an-external-table-in-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-is-the-method-for-deleting-data-from-an-external-table-in-hive\/","title":{"rendered":"Delete Data from Hive External Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two methods available in Hive to delete data from an external table.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Use HiveQL statements:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    TRUNCATE<\/span> TABLE<\/span> table_name;\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
    This statement will delete all data from the external table, but will preserve the structure and metadata of the table.<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. You can use HDFS commands directly to delete the data files corresponding to the external table, for example:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      hdfs dfs -rm<\/span> -r \/path\/to\/data\/file\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
      This will delete the data files corresponding to the external table in HDFS, but it will not affect the metadata of the external table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      There are two methods available in Hive to delete data from an external table. Use HiveQL statements: TRUNCATE TABLE table_name; This statement will delete all data from the external table, but will preserve the structure and metadata of the table. You can use HDFS commands directly to delete the data files corresponding to the external […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3250,15083,5677,303,9414],"class_list":["post-11660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-delete-data","tag-external-table","tag-hdfs-commands","tag-hive","tag-truncate-table"],"yoast_head":"\nDelete Data from Hive External Table - Blog - Silicon Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn 2 methods to delete data from Hive external tables: TRUNCATE TABLE & HDFS commands. 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