feat: implement option 'delete_rows' of argument 'if_exists' in 'DataFrame.to_sql' API.

Author: gmcrocetti

doc/source/whatsnew/v3.0.0.rst

@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ Other enhancements
 - :meth:`Series.map` can now accept kwargs to pass on to func (:issue:`59814`)
 - :meth:`pandas.concat` will raise a ``ValueError`` when ``ignore_index=True`` and ``keys`` is not ``None`` (:issue:`59274`)
 - :meth:`str.get_dummies` now accepts a  ``dtype`` parameter to specify the dtype of the resulting DataFrame (:issue:`47872`)
+- Add ``"delete_rows"`` option to ``if_exists`` argument in :meth:`DataFrame.to_sql` deleting all records of the table before inserting data (:issue:`37210`).
 - Multiplying two :class:`DateOffset` objects will now raise a ``TypeError`` instead of a ``RecursionError`` (:issue:`59442`)
 - Restore support for reading Stata 104-format and enable reading 103-format dta files (:issue:`58554`)
 - Support passing a :class:`Iterable[Hashable]` input to :meth:`DataFrame.drop_duplicates` (:issue:`59237`)

pandas/io/sql.py

@@ -738,7 +738,7 @@ def to_sql(
     name: str,
     con,
     schema: str | None = None,
-    if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append"] = "fail",
+    if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append", "delete_rows"] = "fail",
     index: bool = True,
     index_label: IndexLabel | None = None,
     chunksize: int | None = None,
@@ -764,10 +764,11 @@ def to_sql(
     schema : str, optional
         Name of SQL schema in database to write to (if database flavor
         supports this). If None, use default schema (default).
-    if_exists : {'fail', 'replace', 'append'}, default 'fail'
+    if_exists : {'fail', 'replace', 'append', 'delete_rows'}, default 'fail'
         - fail: If table exists, do nothing.
         - replace: If table exists, drop it, recreate it, and insert data.
         - append: If table exists, insert data. Create if does not exist.
+        - delete_rows: If a table exists, delete all records and insert data.
     index : bool, default True
         Write DataFrame index as a column.
     index_label : str or sequence, optional
@@ -818,7 +819,7 @@ def to_sql(
     `sqlite3 <https://docs.python.org/3/library/sqlite3.html#sqlite3.Cursor.rowcount>`__ or
     `SQLAlchemy <https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/14/core/connections.html#sqlalchemy.engine.BaseCursorResult.rowcount>`__
     """  # noqa: E501
-    if if_exists not in ("fail", "replace", "append"):
+    if if_exists not in ("fail", "replace", "append", "delete_rows"):
         raise ValueError(f"'{if_exists}' is not valid for if_exists")
 
     if isinstance(frame, Series):
@@ -926,7 +927,7 @@ def __init__(
         pandas_sql_engine,
         frame=None,
         index: bool | str | list[str] | None = True,
-        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append"] = "fail",
+        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append", "delete_rows"] = "fail",
         prefix: str = "pandas",
         index_label=None,
         schema=None,
@@ -974,11 +975,13 @@ def create(self) -> None:
         if self.exists():
             if self.if_exists == "fail":
                 raise ValueError(f"Table '{self.name}' already exists.")
-            if self.if_exists == "replace":
+            elif self.if_exists == "replace":
                 self.pd_sql.drop_table(self.name, self.schema)
                 self._execute_create()
             elif self.if_exists == "append":
                 pass
+            elif self.if_exists == "delete_rows":
+                self.pd_sql.delete_rows(self.name, self.schema)
             else:
                 raise ValueError(f"'{self.if_exists}' is not valid for if_exists")
         else:
@@ -1480,7 +1483,7 @@ def to_sql(
         self,
         frame,
         name: str,
-        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append"] = "fail",
+        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append", "delete_rows"] = "fail",
         index: bool = True,
         index_label=None,
         schema=None,
@@ -1866,7 +1869,7 @@ def prep_table(
         self,
         frame,
         name: str,
-        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append"] = "fail",
+        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append", "delete_rows"] = "fail",
         index: bool | str | list[str] | None = True,
         index_label=None,
         schema=None,
@@ -1943,7 +1946,7 @@ def to_sql(
         self,
         frame,
         name: str,
-        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append"] = "fail",
+        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append", "delete_rows"] = "fail",
         index: bool = True,
         index_label=None,
         schema: str | None = None,
@@ -1961,10 +1964,11 @@ def to_sql(
         frame : DataFrame
         name : string
             Name of SQL table.
-        if_exists : {'fail', 'replace', 'append'}, default 'fail'
+        if_exists : {'fail', 'replace', 'append', 'delete_rows'}, default 'fail'
             - fail: If table exists, do nothing.
             - replace: If table exists, drop it, recreate it, and insert data.
             - append: If table exists, insert data. Create if does not exist.
+            - delete_rows: If a table exists, delete all records and insert data.
         index : boolean, default True
             Write DataFrame index as a column.
         index_label : string or sequence, default None
@@ -2061,6 +2065,18 @@ def drop_table(self, table_name: str, schema: str | None = None) -> None:
                 self.get_table(table_name, schema).drop(bind=self.con)
             self.meta.clear()
 
+    def delete_rows(self, table_name: str, schema: str | None = None) -> None:
+        schema = schema or self.meta.schema
+        if self.has_table(table_name, schema):
+            self.meta.reflect(
+                bind=self.con, only=[table_name], schema=schema, views=True
+            )
+            with self.run_transaction() as con:
+                table = self.get_table(table_name, schema)
+                con.execute(table.delete())
+
+            self.meta.clear()
+
     def _create_sql_schema(
         self,
         frame: DataFrame,
@@ -2296,7 +2312,7 @@ def to_sql(
         self,
         frame,
         name: str,
-        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append"] = "fail",
+        if_exists: Literal["fail", "replace", "append", "delete_rows"] = "fail",
         index: bool = True,
         index_label=None,
         schema: str | None = None,
@@ -2318,6 +2334,7 @@ def to_sql(
             - fail: If table exists, do nothing.
             - replace: If table exists, drop it, recreate it, and insert data.
             - append: If table exists, insert data. Create if does not exist.
+            - delete_rows: If a table exists, delete all records and insert data.
         index : boolean, default True
             Write DataFrame index as a column.
         index_label : string or sequence, default None
@@ -2335,6 +2352,7 @@ def to_sql(
         engine : {'auto', 'sqlalchemy'}, default 'auto'
             Raises NotImplementedError if not set to 'auto'
         """
+
         if index_label:
             raise NotImplementedError(
                 "'index_label' is not implemented for ADBC drivers"
@@ -2368,6 +2386,10 @@ def to_sql(
                     cur.execute(f"DROP TABLE {table_name}")
             elif if_exists == "append":
                 mode = "append"
+            elif if_exists == "delete_rows":
+                mode = "append"
+                with self.con.cursor() as cur:
+                    cur.execute(f"DELETE FROM {table_name}")
 
         import pyarrow as pa
 
@@ -2769,10 +2791,11 @@ def to_sql(
         frame: DataFrame
         name: string
             Name of SQL table.
-        if_exists: {'fail', 'replace', 'append'}, default 'fail'
+        if_exists: {'fail', 'replace', 'append', 'delete_rows'}, default 'fail'
             fail: If table exists, do nothing.
             replace: If table exists, drop it, recreate it, and insert data.
             append: If table exists, insert data. Create if it does not exist.
+            delete_rows: If a table exists, delete all records and insert data.
         index : bool, default True
             Write DataFrame index as a column
         index_label : string or sequence, default None
@@ -2848,6 +2871,10 @@ def drop_table(self, name: str, schema: str | None = None) -> None:
         drop_sql = f"DROP TABLE {_get_valid_sqlite_name(name)}"
         self.execute(drop_sql)
 
+    def delete_rows(self, name: str, schema: str | None = None) -> None:
+        delete_sql = f"DELETE FROM {_get_valid_sqlite_name(name)}"
+        self.execute(delete_sql)
+
     def _create_sql_schema(
         self,
         frame,

pandas/tests/io/test_sql.py

@@ -1068,7 +1068,9 @@ def test_to_sql(conn, method, test_frame1, request):
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("conn", all_connectable)
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("mode, num_row_coef", [("replace", 1), ("append", 2)])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "mode, num_row_coef", [("replace", 1), ("append", 2), ("delete_rows", 1)]
+)
 def test_to_sql_exist(conn, mode, num_row_coef, test_frame1, request):
     conn = request.getfixturevalue(conn)
     with pandasSQL_builder(conn, need_transaction=True) as pandasSQL:
@@ -2698,6 +2700,20 @@ def test_drop_table(conn, request):
         assert not insp.has_table("temp_frame")
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("conn", sqlalchemy_connectable + ["sqlite_buildin"])
+def test_delete_rows_success(conn, test_frame1, request):
+    table_name = "temp_frame"
+    conn = request.getfixturevalue(conn)
+    pandasSQL = pandasSQL_builder(conn)
+    with pandasSQL.run_transaction():
+        assert (
+            pandasSQL.to_sql(test_frame1, table_name, if_exists="replace")
+            == test_frame1.shape[0]
+        )
+        assert pandasSQL.delete_rows(table_name) is None
+        assert count_rows(conn, table_name) == 0
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("conn", all_connectable)
 def test_roundtrip(conn, request, test_frame1):
     if conn == "sqlite_str":