Delete objects

Weaviate allows object deletion by id or by a set of criteria.

Additional information

To delete objects, you must provide the collection name as well as identifying criteria (e.g. object id or filters).
For multi-tenancy collections, you will also need to specify the tenant name when deleting objects. See Manage data: multi-tenancy operations for details on how.

Delete object by id

To delete by id, specify the collection name and the object id.

Python

uuid_to_delete = "..."  # replace with the id of the object you want to delete

JavaScript/TypeScript

await client.collections.delete('EphemeralObject')
await client.collections.create({ name: 'EphemeralObject'})
const myCollection = client.collections.use('EphemeralObject')

idToDelete := "..." // replace with the id of the object you want to delete

Java

collection.data.deleteById(uuidToDelete);

await collection.Data.DeleteByID(uuidToDelete);

Delete multiple objects

To delete objects that match a set of criteria, specify the collection and a where filter.

Python

from weaviate.classes.query import Filtercollection = client.collections.use("EphemeralObject")collection.data.delete_many(    where=Filter.by_property("name").like("EphemeralObject*"))

JavaScript/TypeScript

await client.collections.delete('EphemeralObject')
await client.collections.create({ name: 'EphemeralObject'})
const myCollection = client.collections.use('EphemeralObject')

response, err := client.Batch().ObjectsBatchDeleter().  WithClassName("EphemeralObject").  WithOutput("minimal").  WithWhere(filters.Where().    WithPath([]string{"name"}).    WithOperator(filters.Like).    WithValueText("EphemeralObject*")).  Do(ctx)if err != nil {  // handle error  panic(err)}fmt.Printf("%+v\n", *response)

Java

collection.data.deleteMany(    Filter.property("name").like("EphemeralObject*"));

await collection.Data.DeleteMany(    Filter.Property("name").IsLike("EphemeralObject*"));

Additional information

There is a configurable maximum limit (QUERY_MAXIMUM_RESULTS) on the number of objects that can be deleted in a single query (default 10,000). To delete more objects than the limit, re-run the query.

ContainsAny / ContainsAll / ContainsNone

Use ContainsAny / ContainsAll / ContainsNone filters to delete of objects by a set of criteria.

Python

from weaviate.classes.query import Filtercollection = client.collections.use("EphemeralObject")collection.data.delete_many(    where=Filter.by_property("name").contains_any(["europe", "asia"]))

JavaScript/TypeScript

await client.collections.delete('EphemeralObject')
await client.collections.create({ name: 'EphemeralObject'})
const myCollection = client.collections.use('EphemeralObject')

  response, err := client.Batch().ObjectsBatchDeleter().    WithClassName("EphemeralObject").    WithOutput("minimal").    WithWhere(filters.Where().      WithPath([]string{"name"}).      WithOperator(filters.ContainsAny).      WithValueText("asia", "europe")).  // Note the array syntax    Do(ctx)

Java

CollectionHandle<Map<String, Object>> collection =    client.collections.use(COLLECTION_NAME);collection.data.insertMany(Map.of("name", "asia"),    Map.of("name", "europe"));collection.data.deleteMany(    Filter.property("name").containsAny("europe", "asia"));

var collection = client.Collections.Use(COLLECTION_NAME);await collection.Data.InsertMany(new[] { new { name = "asia" }, new { name = "europe" } });await collection.Data.DeleteMany(    Filter.Property("name").ContainsAny(["europe", "asia"]));

Delete multiple objects by id

To delete multiple objects by their id values, use a filter (e.g. ContainsAny) with id based criteria.

Limitations

There is an upper limit (QUERY_MAXIMUM_RESULTS) to how many objects can be deleted using a single query. This protects against unexpected memory surges and very-long-running requests which would be prone to client-side timeouts or network interruptions.

Objects are deleted in the same order that they would be fetched, by order of UUID. To delete more objects than the limit, run the same query multiple times until no objects are matched anymore.

The default QUERY_MAXIMUM_RESULTS value is 10,000. This may be configurable, e.g. in the environment variables.

Python

from weaviate.classes.query import Filtercollection = client.collections.use("EphemeralObject")response = collection.query.fetch_objects(limit=3)  # Fetch 3 object IDsids = [o.uuid for o in response.objects]  # These can be lists of strings, or `UUID` objectscollection.data.delete_many(    where=Filter.by_id().contains_any(ids)  # Delete the 3 objects)

JavaScript/TypeScript

await client.collections.delete('EphemeralObject')
await client.collections.create({ name: 'EphemeralObject'})
const myCollection = client.collections.use('EphemeralObject')

  response, err := client.Batch().ObjectsBatchDeleter().    WithClassName("EphemeralObject").    WithOutput("minimal").    WithWhere(filters.Where().      WithPath([]string{"id"}).      WithOperator(filters.ContainsAny).      WithValueText("12c88739-7a4e-49fd-bf53-d6a829ba0261", "3022b8be-a6dd-4ef4-b213-821f65cee53b", "30de68c1-dd53-4bed-86ea-915f34faea63")).  // Note the array syntax    Do(ctx)

Java

QueryResponse<Map<String, Object>> queryResponse =    collection.query.fetchObjects(q -> q.limit(3));List<String> ids = queryResponse.objects()    .stream()    .map(WeaviateObject::uuid)    .collect(Collectors.toList());collection.data.deleteMany(    Filter.uuid().containsAny(ids.toArray(new String[0])) // Delete the 3 objects);

var queryResponse = await collection.Query.FetchObjects(limit: 3);var ids = queryResponse.Objects.Select(obj => obj.UUID.Value).ToList();await collection.Data.DeleteMany(    Filter.UUID.ContainsAny(ids) // Delete the 3 objects);

Delete all objects

Objects must belong to a collection in Weaviate. Accordingly deleting collections will remove all objects within them.

Delete objects with Time-To-Live (TTL)

You can configure automatic deletion of objects after a specified time period using Time-To-Live (TTL) settings at the collection level. Read how to set it up or learn more about it.

Optional parameters

You can use dryRun to check how many objects would be deleted, without actually performing the deletion.
Set output to 'verbose' to see more details (ID and deletion status) for each deletion.

Python

from weaviate.classes.query import Filtercollection = client.collections.use("EphemeralObject")result = collection.data.delete_many(    where=Filter.by_property("name").like("EphemeralObject*"),    dry_run=True,    verbose=True)print(result)

JavaScript/TypeScript

await client.collections.delete('EphemeralObject')
await client.collections.create({ name: 'EphemeralObject'})
const myCollection = client.collections.use('EphemeralObject')

response, err := client.Batch().ObjectsBatchDeleter().  WithClassName("EphemeralObject").  // Same `where` filter as in the GraphQL API  WithWhere(filters.Where().    WithPath([]string{"name"}).    WithOperator(filters.Like).    WithValueText("EphemeralObject*")).  WithDryRun(true).  WithOutput("verbose").  Do(ctx)if err != nil {  // handle error  panic(err)}fmt.Printf("%+v\n", *response)

Java

var result = collection.data.deleteMany(    Filter.property("name").like("EphemeralObject*"),    c -> c.dryRun(true).verbose(true));System.out.println(result);

var result = await collection.Data.DeleteMany(    Filter.Property("name").IsLike("EphemeralObject*"),    dryRun: true);Console.WriteLine(JsonSerializer.Serialize(result));

Example response

It should produce a response like the one below:

JSON

{
  "dryRun": true,
  "match": {
    "class": "EphemeralObject",
    "where": {
      "operands": null,
      "operator": "Like",
      "path": [
        "name"
      ],
      "valueText": "EphemeralObject*"
    }
  },
  "output": "verbose",
  "results": {
    "failed": 0,
    "limit": 10000,
    "matches": 5,
    "objects": [
      {
        "id": "208cf21f-f824-40f1-95cb-f923bc840ca6",
        "status": "DRYRUN"
      },
      {
        "id": "8b2dddd4-2dc7-422c-885d-f9d5ff4e80c8",
        "status": "DRYRUN"
      },
      {
        "id": "49b3b2b4-3a77-48cd-8e39-27e83c811fcc",
        "status": "DRYRUN"
      },
      {
        "id": "847b31d0-dab4-4c1c-8cd3-af07c9d3dc2c",
        "status": "DRYRUN"
      },
      {
        "id": "147d9cea-5f9c-40c1-884a-f99bc8e9bf06",
        "status": "DRYRUN"
      }
    ],
    "successful": 0
  }
}

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Delete object by id

Delete multiple objects

ContainsAny / ContainsAll / ContainsNone

Delete multiple objects by id

Delete all objects

Delete objects with Time-To-Live (TTL)

Optional parameters

Related pages

Questions and feedback