How to execute DELETE SQL in a JSP?

The <sql:update> tag executes an SQL statement that does not return data; for example, SQL INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements.

Attribute

The <sql:update> tag has the following attributes −

Attribute	Description	Required	Default
sql	SQL command to execute (should not return a ResultSet)	No	Body
dataSource	Database connection to use (overrides the default)	No	Default database
var	Name of the variable to store the count of affected rows	No	None
scope	Scope of the variable to store the count of affected rows	No	Page

Example

To start with basic concept, let us create a simple table Employees table in the TEST database and create few records in that table as follows −

Step 1

Open a Command Prompt and change to the installation directory as follows −

C:\>
C:\>cd Program Files\MySQL\bin
C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>

Step 2

C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>mysql -u root -p
Enter password: ********
mysql>

Step 3

Create the table Employee in the TEST database as follows −

mysql> use TEST;
   mysql> create table Employees (
      id int not null,
      age int not null,
      first varchar (255),
      last varchar (255)
   );
   Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)
mysql>

Create Data Records

We will now create few records in the Employee table as follows −

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (100, 18, 'Zara', 'Ali');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (101, 25, 'Mahnaz', 'Fatma');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (102, 30, 'Zaid', 'Khan');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (103, 28, 'Sumit', 'Mittal');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql>

Let us now write a JSP which will make use of the <sql:update> tag to execute an SQL DELETE statement to update one record in the table as follows −

<%@ page import = "java.io.*,java.util.*,java.sql.*"%>
<%@ page import = "javax.servlet.http.*,javax.servlet.*" %>
<%@ taglib uri = "https://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix = "c"%>
<%@ taglib uri = "https://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix = "sql"%>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>JSTL sql:update Tag</title>
   </head>
   <body>
   <sql:setDataSource var = "snapshot" driver = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
      url = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/TEST"
      user = "root" password = "pass123"/>
      <sql:update dataSource = "${snapshot}" var = "count">
         Delete from Employees where id = 101;
      </sql:update>
      <sql:query dataSource = "${snapshot}" var = "result">
         SELECT * from Employees;
      </sql:query>
      <table border = "1" width = "100%">
         <tr>
            <th>Emp ID</th>
            <th>First Name</th>
            <th>Last Name</th>
            <th>Age</th>
         </tr>
         <c:forEach var = "row" items = "${result.rows}">
            <tr>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.id}"/></td>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.first}"/></td>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.last}"/></td>
               <td> <c:out value = "${row.age}"/></td>
            </tr>
         </c:forEach>
      </table>
   </body>
</html>

Access the above JSP, the following result will be displayed −

+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Emp ID      | First Name     | Last Name       | Age             |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 100         | Zara           | Ali             | 18              |
| 102         | Zaid           | Khan            | 30              |
| 103         | Sumit          | Mittal          | 28              |
| 104         | Nula           | Ali             | 2               |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

Similar way, you can try SQL UPDATE and INSERT statements on the same table.