Does the DELETE command write data?

[Julie]

Hi all,

The DELETE command has the "/*+ direct */" option. According to the SQL Reference Manual (page 775) this option "Writes the data directly to disk (ROS) bypassing memory (WOS)."

My question is what data is being written? I'm deleting data!

Does this refer to logging information?

[Rick]

When a record is deleted in Vertica, it is not actually deleted per say. Instead it is 'marked' for deletion, and then every once in a while you can purge this deleted data (vertica recommends you do this when deleted data exceeds 10% of the total database size).