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Deleting Data

how-to

March 16, 2025

+ 12

How to delete documents in Couchbase.

Introduction

In situations where data is no longer needed, Couchbase Server provides a remove operation to delete a document from the database permanently.

Read the following for further information about the clients available:

Please note that the examples in this guide will alter the data in your sample buckets. To restore your sample data, remove and reinstall the travel-sample bucket. Refer to Sample Buckets for details.

Deleting a Document

To delete a specific field within a document, perform a Sub-Document remove operation.

cbc
.NET
Java
Node.js
Python

Use the cbc rm command to delete a document from the database.

The example below deletes document airport_1254 from the database.

shell
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cbc rm -u Administrator -P password -U couchbase://localhost/travel-sample airport_1254

Result

console
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airport_1254          Deleted

For further details, refer to cbc(1).

Use the RemoveAsync() method to delete a document from the database.

The example below deletes document hotel-123 from the database.

csharp
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await hotelCollection.RemoveAsync("hotel-123");

If the document doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a DocumentNotFoundException error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to CollectionExtensions.

Use the remove() method to delete a document from the database.

The example below deletes document hotel-123 from the database.

java
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MutationResult removeResult = hotelCollection.remove("hotel-123");
System.out.println("CAS:" + removeResult.cas());

If the document doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a DocumentNotFoundException error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to Collection.

Use the remove() function to delete a document from the database.

The example below deletes document hotel-123 from the database.

nodejs
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const removeResult = await hotelCollection.remove('hotel-123')
console.log('CAS:', removeResult.cas)

If the document doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a DocumentNotFoundError error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to Collection.

Use the remove() function to delete a document from the database.

The example below deletes document hotel-123 from the database.

python
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remove_result = hotel_collection.remove("hotel-123")
print("CAS:", remove_result.cas)

If the document doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a DocumentNotFoundException error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to Collection.

Deleting a Sub-Document

To delete a specific field within a document you can perform a Sub-Document remove operation.

cbc-subdoc
.NET
Java
Node.js
Python

Connect to the cbc-subdoc interactive shell.
Use the remove command to delete a field from a document.
Pass the field to remove with the --path argument.

The example below deletes the url field from document hotel-123.

console
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cbc-subdoc -u Administrator -P password -U couchbase://localhost/travel-sample
subdoc> remove hotel-123 --path url

Result

console
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hotel-123          CAS=0x16be2f11c6040000
0. Size=0, RC=LCB_SUCCESS (0)

If the path cannot be found, cbc-subdoc will return a LCB_ERR_SUBDOC_PATH_NOT_FOUND error.

For further details, refer to cbc-subdoc(1).

Call the MutateInAsync() method, which takes a document ID and an IEnumerable containing MutateInSpec objects.
Use a MutateInSpec object to specify the sub-operation to be performed within the lookup.

A MutateInResult object is returned containing the result and metadata relevant to the sub-document remove operation.

The example below deletes the url field from document hotel-123.

csharp
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var mutateInResult = await hotelCollection.MutateInAsync("hotel-123",
	specs => specs.Remove("url")
);
Console.WriteLine($"Cas: {mutateInResult.Cas}");

If the path doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a PathNotFoundException error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to CollectionExtensions.

Call the mutateIn() method, which takes a document ID and an array of MutateInSpec objects.
Use a MutateInSpec object to specify the sub-operation to be performed within the lookup.

A MutateInResult object is returned, containing the result and metadata relevant to the sub-document remove operation.

The example below deletes the url field from document hotel-123.

java
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List<MutateInSpec> specs = Arrays.asList(MutateInSpec.remove("url"));

MutateInResult mutateInResult = hotelCollection.mutateIn("hotel-123", specs);
System.out.println("CAS:" + mutateInResult.cas());

If the path doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a PathNotFoundException error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to Collection.

Call the mutateIn() method, which takes a document ID and an array of MutateInSpec objects.
Use a MutateInSpec object to specify the sub-operation to be performed within the lookup.

A MutateInResult object is returned, containing the result and metadata relevant to the sub-document remove operation.

The example below deletes the url field from document hotel-123.

nodejs
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mutateInResult = await hotelCollection.mutateIn('hotel-123', [
  couchbase.MutateInSpec.remove('url'),
])
console.log('CAS:', mutateInResult.cas)

If the path doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a PathNotFoundError error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to Collection.

Call the lookup_in() function, which takes a document ID and a list of MutateInSpec objects.
Use a MutateInSpec object to specify the sub-operation to be performed within the lookup.

A MutateInResult object is returned, containing the result and metadata relevant to the sub-document remove operation.

The example below deletes the url field from document hotel-123.

python
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mutate_in_result = hotel_collection.mutate_in(
    "hotel-123", [subdocument.remove("url")]
)
print("CAS:", mutate_in_result.cas)

If the path doesn’t exist, the SDK will return a PathNotFoundException error.

Click the GitHub button to view this code in context.

For further details, refer to Collection.

Key-Value Operations with SDKs:

C | .NET | Go | Java | Node.js | PHP | Python | Ruby | Scala

Sub-Document operations with SDKs:

C | .NET | Go | Java | Node.js | PHP | Python | Ruby | Scala

Deleting Data

Introduction

Deleting a Document

Deleting a Sub-Document

Related Links