How to delete records?¶

Records can be deleted with record.delete(), which will permanently remove them from your database.

When it comes to records of File and Collection, they are “moved into trash” when you first call record.delete().

Trashed records are invisible in the UI and excluded from the query results, see visibility faq.
If a record is already in the trash or permanent=True is passed, calling record.delete() triggers permanent delete.
During permanent deletion of a record, its artifact in storage is also deleted unless it has a semantic key.

Setup¶

Install the lamindb Python package:

pip install lamindb

!lamin init --storage test-delete

💡 connected lamindb: testuser1/test-delete

import lamindb as ln
import pandas as pd

💡 connected lamindb: testuser1/test-delete

artifact = ln.Artifact.from_df(pd.DataFrame({"a": [1, 2], "b": [3, 4]}), description="mydf")
artifact.save()

❗ no run & transform get linked, consider calling ln.track()

Artifact(uid='k9N9m3rUgB7S54jFtu4C', description='mydf', suffix='.parquet', type='dataset', accessor='DataFrame', size=2240, hash='RzXuf-54uJK6W56QmZJquQ', hash_type='md5', visibility=1, key_is_virtual=True, created_by_id=1, storage_id=1, updated_at='2024-07-26 14:36:14 UTC')

ln.Artifact.df()

	uid	version	description	key	suffix	type	accessor	size	hash	hash_type	n_objects	n_observations	visibility	key_is_virtual	storage_id	transform_id	run_id	created_by_id	updated_at
id
1	k9N9m3rUgB7S54jFtu4C	None	mydf	None	.parquet	dataset	DataFrame	2240	RzXuf-54uJK6W56QmZJquQ	md5	None	None	1	True	1	None	None	1	2024-07-26 14:36:14.467476+00:00

Trash an artifact¶

artifact.delete()

❗ moved artifact to trash (visibility = -1)

No longer visible:

ln.Artifact.df()

	uid	version	description	key	suffix	type	accessor	size	hash	hash_type	n_objects	n_observations	visibility	key_is_virtual	storage_id	transform_id	run_id	created_by_id	updated_at
id

But the artifact still exists in the database, you can find it by not filtering for visibility:

ln.Artifact.filter(visibility=None).df()

	uid	version	description	key	suffix	type	accessor	size	hash	hash_type	n_objects	n_observations	visibility	key_is_virtual	storage_id	transform_id	run_id	created_by_id	updated_at
id
1	k9N9m3rUgB7S54jFtu4C	None	mydf	None	.parquet	dataset	DataFrame	2240	RzXuf-54uJK6W56QmZJquQ	md5	None	None	-1	True	1	None	None	1	2024-07-26 14:36:14.520242+00:00

You can restore an artifact from trash:

artifact.restore()

ln.Artifact.df()

	uid	version	description	key	suffix	type	accessor	size	hash	hash_type	n_objects	n_observations	visibility	key_is_virtual	storage_id	transform_id	run_id	created_by_id	updated_at
id
1	k9N9m3rUgB7S54jFtu4C	None	mydf	None	.parquet	dataset	DataFrame	2240	RzXuf-54uJK6W56QmZJquQ	md5	None	None	1	True	1	None	None	1	2024-07-26 14:36:14.566840+00:00

Permanent delete¶

Calling artifact.delete on a trashed artifact triggers a permanent delete dialog. You can pass permanent=True to auto-confirm the deletion.

artifact.delete(permanent=True)

Now its gone in the database:

ln.Artifact.filter(visibility=None).df()

	uid	version	description	key	suffix	type	accessor	size	hash	hash_type	n_objects	n_observations	visibility	key_is_virtual	storage_id	transform_id	run_id	created_by_id	updated_at
id