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Re: Naming Object commands "Delete" is a source of user errors - Mailing list pgadmin-support

From Ray O'Donnell
Subject Re: Naming Object commands "Delete" is a source of user errors
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Msg-id 01020198122b4fa8-37d1f889-e6c1-4bb9-87a4-1b3ca0ffc8c3-000000@eu-west-1.amazonses.com
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In response to Naming Object commands "Delete" is a source of user errors  (Darren Duncan <darren@darrenduncan.net>)
Responses Re: Naming Object commands "Delete" is a source of user errors
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On 16 July 2025 08:19:09 Darren Duncan <darren@darrenduncan.net> wrote:

I am finding that it is a recurring and damaging source of user error that 
Object/Explorer commands named "Delete" actually correspond to SQL DROP rather 
than SQL DELETE or TRUNCATE. Multiple times I have accidentally dropped tables 
when I meant to just truncate them.

In fairness, you don't (SQL) DELTE tables - you delete their rows, hence the command is DELETE FROM. And it is intuitive that when you right-click on an object and click "Delete", it is the object itself which gets zapped. Also, TRUNCATE is there in the menu too.

Having said that, I recall that the menu used to say "Drop" rather than "Delete", which IMHO is clearer to SQL-savvy people.... it got changed at some point.

Ray.




I created a GitHub issue requesting to rename the "Delete" commands to "Drop" to 
help avoid this regular source of cognitive dissonance that leads to errors.

https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/issues/8958

I'm also mentioning the issue in this support list to help draw attention to it.

Thank you.

Darren Duncan

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