Workaround for DELETE … LIMIT clause (SQL)

Question

I am working on a database query abstraction layer that supports SQLite.

Unfortunately, SQLite does not support the LIMIT clause in DELETE (and UPDATE etc.) queries - except if compiled with a special flag in more recent versions.

So is there any workaround that I could implement so that that query type can still be supported?

Answer 1

Although LIMIT is not innately supported in your build of SQLite you may be able to reproduce the behavior by implementing a method that uses a LIMIT select in a subquery to identify the rows that will be updated or deleted. You should be aware that this will cause some performance degradation over using a LIMIT enabled SQLite build but if you need the functionality this would seem like a viable option.

If you are working with a large set of data or find that the performance hit from trying this is too severe the other option would be to use a LIMIT select to populate a temp table and then join against that table as part of your delete or update.