REMOVE

Purpose

This statement is used to delete files from an external storage location.

Limitations and considerations

Files in a local location object cannot be deleted.

Privilege requirements

To execute the REMOVE statement, the current user must have the WRITE privilege on the location object. For more information about granting privileges on a location object to a user, see GRANT.

Syntax

REMOVE FILES IN LOCATION @location_name['/path'] [pattern_expr];

pattern_expr:
    PATTERN [=] 'regex_pattern'
    | REGEXP_PATTERN [=] 'regex_pattern'
    | GLOB_PATTERN [=] 'glob_pattern'

Parameters

pattern_expr

• PATTERN [=] 'regex_pattern': Specifies a file name or a regular expression. The PATTERN and REGEXP_PATTERN parameters are equivalent. This parameter controls which files are loaded. Examples:

  • PATTERN = 'extdata.csv': Specifies that the file extdata.csv should be loaded.
  • If there are multiple CSV files, such as extdata_2024.csv and extdata_2025.csv, you can write PATTERN = 'extdata_\d{4}\.csv'.

• REGEXP_PATTERN [=] 'regex_pattern': Specifies to use a regular expression to match file names. This allows flexible matching of various file names. Example:

  • REGEXP_PATTERN = '.*[.]csv$': Uses a regular expression to filter out all files with the .csv extension under LOCATION.

    Note

    For V5.x versions, the REGEXP_PATTERN parameter is available starting from V5.0.1.

• GLOB_PATTERN [=] 'glob_pattern': Specifies to use wildcard characters to match file names. This allows simple matching of common file types. Example:

  • GLOB_PATTERN = '*.csv': Matches all files with the .csv extension.

    Note

    For V5.x versions, the GLOB_PATTERN parameter is available starting from V5.0.1.

Examples

Delete files in the test_location_oss location object.

obclient> REMOVE FILES IN LOCATION @test_location_oss;

References

• For more information about creating a location object, see CREATE LOCATION.
• For more information about viewing files in a location object, see SHOW.