Delete Handling

In a data warehouse, the decision to retain or delete records from the data warehouse depends on the specific use cases and business requirements.

You can delete source data as it continually updates with new records. Deletions can be:

• Hard Delete: Permanently deletes records from data warehouse datasets, through propagation or explicit application.
• Soft Delete: Marks records as deleted without physically removing them from the dataset.

You can handle deletions by using the TRACKDELETES, DELETESOURCE, and THEN DELETE directives, which are designed to manage both hard and soft deletes during data import and processing.

The following topics describe how you can apply deletions:

• TRACKDELETES (Default Behavior)
• DELETESOURCE
• THEN DELETE

For more information about delete handling, see Deletions.