How does one eliminate duplicates rows from a table?

Choose one of the following queries to identify or remove duplicate rows from a table leaving only unique records in the table:

Method 1:

SQL> DELETE FROM table_name A WHERE ROWID > (
  2    SELECT min(rowid) FROM table_name B
  3    WHERE A.key_values = B.key_values);

Delete all rowids that is BIGGER than the SMALLEST rowid value (for a given key).

Method 2:

SQL> create table table_name2 as select distinct * from table_name1;
SQL> drop table table_name1;
SQL> rename table_name2 to table_name1;

This method is usually faster. However, remember to recreate all indexes, constraints, triggers, etc. on the table when done.

Method 3:

(contributed by Dennis Gurnick)

SQL> delete from my_table t1
SQL> where  exists (select 'x' from my_table t2
SQL>                 where t2.key_value1 = t1.key_value1
SQL>                   and t2.key_value2 = t1.key_value2
SQL>                   and t2.rowid      > t1.rowid);

Note: One can eliminate N^2 unnecessary operations by creating an index on the joined fields in the inner loop (no need to loop through the entire table on each pass by a record). This will speed-up the deletion process.

Note 2: If you are comparing NOT-NULL columns, use the NVL function. Remember that NULL is not equal to NULL. This should not be a problem as all key columns should be NOT NULL by definition.