Delete documents (Python)

Finds documents in a collection using filter clauses, and then deletes those documents.

If you don’t use a filter, or if you use an empty filter, then this method deletes all documents in the collection.

This method does not support sort parameters, including vector search. If you want to use sort parameters to find documents, use the method to find documents instead. Then, use the method to delete a single document to delete each found document by ID.

Ready to write code? See the examples for this method to get started. If you are new to the Data API, check out the quickstart.

Result

Deletes documents that match the specified parameters and returns a CollectionDeleteResult object that includes details about the operation.

A result that includes a deleted count of -1 indicates that every document in the collection was deleted.

Example response:

CollectionDeleteResult(deleted_count=2, raw_results=...)

Parameters

Use the delete_many method, which belongs to the astrapy.Collection class.

Method signature
delete_many(
  filter: Dict[str, Any],
  *,
  general_method_timeout_ms: int,
  request_timeout_ms: int,
  timeout_ms: int,
) -> CollectionDeleteResult
Name Type Summary

filter

Dict[str, Any]

Optional. An object that defines filter criteria using the Data API filter syntax. The method only finds documents that match the filter criteria. Filters can improve performance by reducing the number of documents that the Data API processes.

You must use & to escape any . or & in field names in the filter clause. You cannot use & to escape any other characters. For more information, see Work with . and & in field names (Python).

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections (Python).

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

If you don’t use a filter, or if you use an empty filter, then this method deletes all documents in the collection.

general_method_timeout_ms

int

Optional. The maximum time, in milliseconds, that the whole operation, which might involve multiple HTTP requests, can take.

Default: The default value for the collection. This default is 30 seconds unless you specified a different default when you initialized the Collection or DataAPIClient object. For more information, see Timeout options.

request_timeout_ms

int

Optional. The maximum time, in milliseconds, that the client should wait for each underlying HTTP request.

Default: The default value for the collection. This default is 10 seconds unless you specified a different default when you initialized the Collection or DataAPIClient object. For more information, see Timeout options.

timeout_ms

int

Optional. An alias for general_method_timeout_ms.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to delete documents in a collection.

Delete documents that match a filter

You can use a filter to find documents that match specific criteria. For example, you can find documents with an is_checked_out value of false and a number_of_pages value less than 300.

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections (Python).

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

from astrapy import DataAPIClient

# Get an existing collection
client = DataAPIClient()
database = client.get_database(
    "API_ENDPOINT", token="APPLICATION_TOKEN"
)
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

# Delete documents
result = collection.delete_many(
    {
        "$and": [
            {"is_checked_out": False},
            {"number_of_pages": {"$lt": 300}},
        ]
    }
)

print(result)

Delete all documents

To delete all documents, use an empty filter.

A result that includes a deleted count of -1 indicates that every document in the collection was deleted.

from astrapy import DataAPIClient

# Get an existing collection
client = DataAPIClient()
database = client.get_database(
    "API_ENDPOINT", token="APPLICATION_TOKEN"
)
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

# Delete all documents
result = collection.delete_many({})

print(result)

Delete more than 20 documents

The client automatically issues multiple Data API HTTP requests to delete all documents that match your filter.

Client reference

For more information, see the client reference.

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