Delete latest entry in SQL Server without using datetime or ID - sql-server

Question

I have a basic SQL Server delete script that goes:
Delete from tableX
where colA = ? and colB = ?;
In tableX, I do not have any columns indicating sequential IDs or timestamp; just varchar. I want to delete the latest entry that was inserted, and I do not have access to the row number from the insert script. TOP is not an option because it's random. Also, this particular table does not have a primary key, and it's not a matter of poor design. Is there any way I can do this? I recall mysql being able to call something like max(row_number) and also something along the lines of limit one.

Answer 1

ROW_NUMBER exists in SQL Server, too, but it must be used with an OVER (order_by_clause). So... in your case it's impossible for you unless you come up with another sorting algo.
MSDN
Edit: (Examples for George from MSDN ... I'm afraid his company has a Firewall rule that blocks MSDN)
SQL-Code
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS Row,
FirstName, LastName, ROUND(SalesYTD,2,1) AS "Sales YTD"
FROM Sales.vSalesPerson
WHERE TerritoryName IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0;
Output
Row FirstName LastName SalesYTD
--- ----------- ---------------------- -----------------
1 Linda Mitchell 4251368.54
2 Jae Pak 4116871.22
3 Michael Blythe 3763178.17
4 Jillian Carson 3189418.36
5 Ranjit Varkey Chudukatil 3121616.32
6 José Saraiva 2604540.71
7 Shu Ito 2458535.61
8 Tsvi Reiter 2315185.61
9 Rachel Valdez 1827066.71
10 Tete Mensa-Annan 1576562.19
11 David Campbell 1573012.93
12 Garrett Vargas 1453719.46
13 Lynn Tsoflias 1421810.92
14 Pamela Ansman-Wolfe 1352577.13
Returning a subset of rows
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
WITH OrderedOrders AS
(
SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY OrderDate) AS RowNumber
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader
)
SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate, RowNumber
FROM OrderedOrders
WHERE RowNumber BETWEEN 50 AND 60;
Using ROW_NUMBER() with PARTITION
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
SELECT FirstName, LastName, TerritoryName, ROUND(SalesYTD,2,1),
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY TerritoryName ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS Row
FROM Sales.vSalesPerson
WHERE TerritoryName IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0
ORDER BY TerritoryName;
Output
FirstName LastName TerritoryName SalesYTD Row
--------- -------------------- ------------------ ------------ ---
Lynn Tsoflias Australia 1421810.92 1
José Saraiva Canada 2604540.71 1
Garrett Vargas Canada 1453719.46 2
Jillian Carson Central 3189418.36 1
Ranjit Varkey Chudukatil France 3121616.32 1
Rachel Valdez Germany 1827066.71 1
Michael Blythe Northeast 3763178.17 1
Tete Mensa-Annan Northwest 1576562.19 1
David Campbell Northwest 1573012.93 2
Pamela Ansman-Wolfe Northwest 1352577.13 3
Tsvi Reiter Southeast 2315185.61 1
Linda Mitchell Southwest 4251368.54 1
Shu Ito Southwest 2458535.61 2
Jae Pak United Kingdom 4116871.22 1

Answer 2

Your current table design does not allow you to determine the latest entry. YOu have no field to sort on to indicate which record was added last.
You need to redesign or pull that information from the audit tables. If you have a database without audit tables, you might have to find a tool to read the transaction logs and it will be a very time-consuming and expensive process. Or if you know the date the records you want to remove were added, you could possibly use a backup from just before this happened to find the records that were added. Just be awwre that you might be looking at records changed after this date that you want to keep.
If you need to do this on a regular basis instead of one-time to fix some bad data, then you need to properly design your database to include an identity field and possibly a dateupdated field (maintained through a trigger) or audit tables. (In my opinion no database containing information your company is depending on should be without audit tables, one of the many reasons why you should never allow an ORM to desgn a database, but I digress.) If you need to know the order records were added to a table, it is your responsiblity as the developer to create that structure. Databases only store what is deisnged for tehm to store, if you didn't design it in, then it is not available easily or at all

Answer 3

If (colA +'_'+ colB) can not be dublicate try this.
declare #delColumn nvarchar(250)
set #delColumn = (select top 1 DeleteColumn from (
select (colA +'_'+ colB) as DeleteColumn ,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY colA DESC) as Id from tableX
)b
order by Id desc
)
delete from tableX where (colA +'_'+ colB) =#delColumn