DROP The DROP command removes a table from the database. All the tables' rows, indexes and privileges will also be removed. No DML triggers will be fired. The operation cannot be rolled back. TRUNCATE TRUNCATE removes all rows from a table. The operation cannot be rolled back and no triggers will be fired. As such, TRUNCATE is faster and doesn't use as much undo space as a DELETE. Table level lock will be added when Truncating. DELETE The DELETE command is used to remove rows from a table. A WHERE clause can be used to only remove some rows. If no WHERE condition is specified, all rows will be removed. After performing a DELETE operation you need to COMMIT or ROLLBACK the transaction to make the change permanent or to undo it. Note that this operation will cause all DELETE triggers on the table to fire. Row level lock will be added when deleting.

来自:http://www.orafaq.com/faq/difference_between_truncate_delete_and_drop_commands

DELETE语句:该命令只根据where子句中给定的条件从表中删除行，如果没有指定条件，则从表中删除所有行。但是它不会释放包含表的空间。

SQL DELETE语句的语法是:

DELETE FROM table_name [WHERE condition];

TRUNCATE语句:该命令用于删除表中的所有行，并释放包含表的空间。

这两个操作的另一个区别是，如果表包含一个标识列，则在TRUNCATE下该列的计数器将重置1(或为该列定义的种子值)。DELETE没有这种影响。

它方便的一个重要原因是，当您需要刷新数百万行表中的数据，但又不想重新构建它时。“Delete *”会花费很长时间，而Truncate对性能的影响可以忽略不计。

TRUNCATE是快的，DELETE是慢的。

尽管TRUNCATE没有问责制。

对原始答案的一个小修正——删除也会产生大量的重做(因为undo本身是由重做保护的)。这可以从autotrace输出中看到:

SQL> delete from t1;

10918 rows deleted.

Elapsed: 00:00:00.58

Execution Plan
----------------------------------------------------------
   0      DELETE STATEMENT Optimizer=FIRST_ROWS (Cost=43 Card=1)
   1    0   DELETE OF 'T1'
   2    1     TABLE ACCESS (FULL) OF 'T1' (TABLE) (Cost=43 Card=1)




Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
         30  recursive calls
      12118  db block gets
        213  consistent gets
        142  physical reads
    3975328  redo size
        441  bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
        537  bytes received via SQL*Net from client
          4  SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
          2  sorts (memory)
          0  sorts (disk)
      10918  rows processed