Question

I’m trying to execute such command in mysql:

DELETE FROM product_description, product, product_to_store, url_alias WHERE
product_description.name LIKE '%|%' AND product.product_id = 
product_description.product_id AND product_to_store.product_id = 
product_description.product_id AND url_alias.query = 
CONCAT('product_id=',product_description.product_id)

However it gives me an error:

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your  MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'WHERE product_description.name LIKE '%|%' AND product.product_id = product_descr' at line 1

When I will replace ‘DELETE’ with ‘SELECT *’ query works like a charm.

According to mysql doc

Currently, you cannot delete from a table and select from the same
table in a subquery.

So now I’m stuck with no idea how to perform such query, without using PHP

EDITED

My final query that worked:

DELETE product_description, product, product_to_store, url_alias 
FROM product_description, product, product_to_store, url_alias 
  WHERE product_description.name LIKE '%|%' AND product.product_id = 
  product_description.product_id AND product_to_store.product_id = 
  product_description.product_id AND url_alias.query = 
  CONCAT('product_id=',product_description.product_id)

So the tip was to add all 4 tables names just after DELETE to make it work, as JW wrote

Answer 1

you need to specify on which the delete should takes place, in this example below, the records will be deleted in table product_description

DELETE product_description
FROM product_description, product, product_to_store, url_alias 
WHERE product_description.name LIKE '%|%' AND product.product_id = 
      product_description.product_id AND product_to_store.product_id = 
      product_description.product_id AND url_alias.query = 
      CONCAT('product_id=',product_description.product_id)

OR use ANSI SQL-92 format

DELETE  product_description
FROM    product_description
        INNER JOIN product 
            ON product.product_id = product_description.product_id
        INNER JOIN product_to_store 
            ON product_to_store.product_id = product_description.product_id
        INNER JOIN url_alias 
            ON url_alias.query = CONCAT('product_id=',product_description.product_id)
WHERE   product_description.name LIKE '%|%'