.TH delete "" "" "/rdb Command"
.PC "Blank record and update index file"
\fBdelete  [-m[bhirs]] \fItable keycolumn ... \fB< \fIkeytable\fR
.PP
.II row^delete
.II "delete row"
The command
.B delete
writes a blank record on the row in
.I table
whose key matches the row in the
.IR keytable .
It also deletes the offset row in the appropriate fast-access
offset table, or, in the case of the
.B hash
method, replaces the deleted offset with \-1.
.PP
Options
.B \-m[bhirs]
lets you select a type of fast-accessing to locate the row to delete.
For information on the type of fast accessing that each option invokes,
see the manual entry for
.BR index .
.SH Example
Consider table
.BR inventory ,
which appears as follows:
.DM
Item    Amount  Cost    Value   Description   
----    ------  ----    -----   --------------
   1         3    50      150   rubber gloves
   2       100     5      500   test tubes
   3         5    80      400   clamps
   4        23    19      437   plates
   5        99    24     2376   cleaning cloth
   6        89   147    13083   bunsen burners
   7         5   175      875   scales
.DE
.PP
The
.B record
index looks like this:
.DM
  Offset
--------
      76
     113
     147
     177
     207
     245
     283
.DE
.PP
The following command deletes the first record
.BR Item 1:
.DM
	echo 1 | delete -mr inventory Item
.DE
.PP
.B inventory
now appears as follows:
.DM
Item    Amount  Cost    Value   Description   
----    ------  ----    -----   --------------
                                             
   2       100     5      500   test tubes
   3         5    80      400   clamps
   4        23    19      437   plates
   5        99    24     2376   cleaning cloth
   6        89   147    13083   bunsen burners
   7         5   175      875   scales
.DE
.PP
.B inventory.r
now appears as follows:
.DM
  Offset
--------
     113
     147
     177
     207
     245
     283
.DE
.PP
Note that we have blanked out the record and removed the
offset.
.SH "See Also"
.B
append,
index,
replace
.R
.SO delete