I think i found an ok solution: (note I've updated my own insert statements from the OP) drop table purg; create temporary table purg (id integer primary key, tbl);
-- Use the fact that the Puging tables C unique ID is always after table A's data. insert into purg select distinct kd.id, 'a' from c, a where c.id = a.id and c.cnt = a.cnt and c.ref = a.ref and a.id < c.id ; -- For ech a record to be purged. Join it to get the ref value and the table B id's insert into purg select distinct b.id, 'b' from purg p, b, a where p.id = a.id and a.id = b.id and a.ref = b.ref ; insert into purg select c.id, 'c' from c; --- Now purge. delete from a where id in (select id from purg where tbl = 'a'); delete from b where id in (select id from purg where tbl = 'b'); delete from c where id in (select id from purg where tbl = 'c'); Any ideas of a better way? Thanks, Ken Ken <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Id like to get your ideas on implementing a stack using sql tables. table a, contains references to b table b contains refernce to a table c contains delete entries for A (but b must also be purged!) My processing forces me to load all of a,b and c. There may be cases where table C indicates a complete deletion for table A. As a special case there is another table D that indicates a complete delete. In this instance I can delete by another unique Id that is contained in all of the tables but ommitted for brevity. create table a ( id integer, ref integer, cnt integer ); create table b ( id integer, ref integer, val text ); create table c ( id integer, ref, cnt integer ); insert into a values (1,32,5); insert into b values (11,32,'first data item'); insert into c values (2,32,5) ; insert into a values (2,33,5); insert into b values (12,33,'second data item'); insert into c values (3,5) ; insert into a values (4,34,5); insert into b values (13,34,'third data item'); After processing, Id like to be left with the following: a ( 4, 34,5) b (13, 34, 'third data item') This is easily implemented in a memory stack. but I'm not sure how to implement using sql. thanks for any ideas. Ken