DELETE FROM ... reporting syntax error at or near "." - database

Question

I'm trying to delete just one data from my DB, but, when I write the command I keep getting that there's some syntax error, could you tell me where is the error?
This are the commands I've tried:
DELETE FROM database_userprofile WHERE user.username = 'some';
ERROR: syntax error at or near "."
LINE 1: DELETE FROM database_userprofile WHERE user.username = 'some'...
DELETE FROM database_userprofile USING database_user WHERE user.username="some";
ERROR: syntax error at or near "."
LINE 1: ... database_userprofile USING database_user WHERE user.username=...
Hope you can help me

Answer 1

Your query doesn't make any sense.
DELETE FROM database_userprofile WHERE user.username = 'some';
^^^^
Where'd user come from? It isn't referenced in the query. Is it a column of database_userprofile? If so, you can't write user.username (unless it's a composite type, in which case you would have to write (user).username to tell the parser that; but I doubt it's a composite type).
The immediate cause is that user is a reserved word. You can't use that name without quoting it:
DELETE FROM database_userprofile WHERE "user".username = 'some';
... however, this query still makes no sense, it'll just give a different error:
regress=> DELETE FROM database_userprofile WHERE "user".username = 'some';
ERROR: missing FROM-clause entry for table "user"
LINE 1: DELETE FROM database_userprofile WHERE "user".username = 'so...
My wild guess is that you're trying to do a delete over a join. I'm assuming that you have tables like:
CREATE TABLE "user" (
id serial primary key,
username text not null,
-- blah blah
);
CREATE TABLE database_userprofile (
user_id integer references "user"(id),
-- blah blah
);
and you're trying to do delete with a condition across the other table.
If so, you can't just write user.username. You must use:
DELETE FROM database_userprofile
USING "user"
WHERE database_userprofile.user_id = "user".id
AND "user".username = 'fred';
You'll notice that I've double-quoted "user". That's because it's a keyword and shouldn't really be used for table names or other user defined identifiers. Double-quoting it forces it to be intepreted as an identifier not a keyword.

Answer 2

Due to documentation, the syntax for delete in PostgreSQL 9.1 is:
[ WITH [ RECURSIVE ] with_query [, ...] ]
DELETE FROM [ ONLY ] table [ * ] [ [ AS ] alias ]
[ USING using_list ]
[ WHERE condition | WHERE CURRENT OF cursor_name ]
[ RETURNING * | output_expression [ [ AS ] output_name ] [, ...] ]
So you need to specify the "table_name" after DELETE command, not the "database_name".
You can delete data only if you are logged into the database.
You got
ERROR: syntax error at or near "."
because in the WHERE section you can specify the target table or the tables in the usinglist.

Answer 3

You may also get this error when copy-pasting a query from Eclipse to pgadmin. Somehow, a strange symbol may be inserted. To avoid this error, paste it in a simple text editor first (like notepad), then cut it from there and paste it in pgadmin.