# Deleting Data

CakePHP's Model class offers a few ways to delete records from your database.

<a id="model-delete"></a>

## delete

`delete(integer $id = null, boolean $cascade = true);`

Deletes the record identified by \$id. By default, also deletes records dependent
on the record specified to be deleted.

For example, when deleting a User record that is tied to many Recipe records
(User 'hasMany' or 'hasAndBelongsToMany' Recipes):

- if \$cascade is set to true, the related Recipe records are also deleted if
  the model's dependent-value is set to true.
- if \$cascade is set to false, the Recipe records will remain after the User
  has been deleted.

If your database supports foreign keys and cascading deletes, it's often more
efficient to rely on that feature than CakePHP's cascading. The one benefit to
using the cascade feature of `Model::delete()` is that it allows you to
leverage behaviors and model callbacks:

```php
$this->Comment->delete($this->request->data('Comment.id'));
```

You can hook custom logic into the delete process using the `beforeDelete` and
`afterDelete` callbacks present in both Models and Behaviors. See
[Callback Methods](https://pieceofcake2.github.io/docs/models/callback-methods.md) for more information.

> [!NOTE]
> If you delete a record with dependent records and one of their delete
> callbacks, e.g. `beforeDelete` returns `false`, it will not stop the
> further event propagation nor does it change the return value of the initial
> `delete`.

<a id="model-deleteall"></a>

## deleteAll

`deleteAll(mixed $conditions, $cascade = true, $callbacks = false)`

`deleteAll()` is similar to `delete()`, except that `deleteAll()` will
delete all records that match the supplied conditions. The `$conditions` array
should be supplied as a SQL fragment or array.

- **conditions** Conditions to match
- **cascade** Boolean, Set to true to delete records that depend on this record
- **callbacks** Boolean, Run callbacks

Return boolean True on success, false on failure.

Example:

```php
// Delete with array conditions similar to find()
$this->Comment->deleteAll(['Comment.spam' => true], false);
```

If you delete with either callbacks and/or cascade, rows will be found and then
deleted. This will often result in more queries being issued. Associations will
be reset before the matched records are deleted in deleteAll(). If you use
bindModel() or unbindModel() to change the associations, you should set
**reset** to `false`.

> [!NOTE]
> deleteAll() will return true even if no records are deleted, as the conditions
> for the delete query were successful and no matching records remain.