docs/src/docs/asciidoc/persistenceBasics/deletingObjects.adoc

An example of the link:../api/org/grails/datastore/gorm/GormEntity.html#delete()[delete()] method can be seen below:

[source,groovy]
----
def p = Person.get(1)
p.delete()
----

As with saves, Hibernate will use transactional write-behind to perform the delete; to perform the delete in-place you can use the `flush` argument:

[source,groovy]
----
def p = Person.get(1)
p.delete(flush: true)
----

Using the `flush` argument lets you catch any errors that occur during a delete. A common error that may occur is if you violate a database constraint, although this is normally down to a programming or schema error. The following example shows how to catch a `DataIntegrityViolationException` that is thrown when you violate the database constraints:

[source,java]
----
import org.springframework.dao.*

def p = Person.get(1)

try {
    p.delete(flush: true)
}
catch (DataIntegrityViolationException e) {
    // handle the error
}
----

In order to perform a batch delete there are a couple of ways to achieve that. One way is to use a <<whereQueries, Where Query>>:

[source,groovy]
----
Person.where {
	name == "Fred"
}.deleteAll()
----

Another alternative is to use an HQL statement within the link:../api/org/grails/datastore/gorm/GormEntity.html#executeUpdate(java.lang.String)[executeUpdate(...)] method:

[source,groovy]
----
Customer.executeUpdate("delete Customer c where c.name = :oldName",
                       [oldName: "Fred"])
----