Implementation:Heibaiying BigData Notes HBaseUtils Delete Operations

Knowledge Sources	BigData-Notes HBase API
Domains	NoSQL, Big_Data
Last Updated	2026-02-10 10:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for deleting rows, cells, and tables from HBase provided by the HBaseUtils utility class.

Description

The HBaseUtils class provides three deletion methods covering the full range of HBase delete operations:

deleteRow -- Deletes an entire row by placing tombstone markers for all cells in the row.
deleteColumn -- Deletes a specific cell identified by row key, column family, and qualifier.
deleteTable -- Performs the two-step administrative operation of disabling and then deleting a table.

The deleteRow and deleteColumn methods use the Delete class from the HBase client API, while deleteTable uses the Admin interface for administrative operations.

Usage

Use deleteRow to remove an entire entity from a table.
Use deleteColumn to remove a specific attribute while preserving the rest of the row.
Use deleteTable to permanently remove a table and all its data during cleanup or decommissioning.

Code Reference

Source Location

code/Hbase/hbase-java-api-2.x/src/main/java/com/heibaiying/HBaseUtils.java (Lines 232-266)

Signature

// Delete an entire row
public static boolean deleteRow(String tableName, String rowKey) throws IOException

// Delete a specific cell
public static boolean deleteColumn(String tableName, String rowKey,
                                   String familyName, String qualifier) throws IOException

// Delete an entire table (disables then deletes)
public static boolean deleteTable(String tableName) throws IOException

Import

import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Delete;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Admin;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Table;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableName;
import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;

I/O Contract

Inputs (deleteRow)

Name	Type	Required	Description
tableName	String	Yes	The name of the HBase table containing the row to delete.
rowKey	String	Yes	The row key identifying the row to delete.

Inputs (deleteColumn)

Name	Type	Required	Description
tableName	String	Yes	The name of the HBase table containing the cell to delete.
rowKey	String	Yes	The row key of the row containing the cell.
familyName	String	Yes	The column family of the cell to delete.
qualifier	String	Yes	The column qualifier of the cell to delete.

Inputs (deleteTable)

Name	Type	Required	Description
tableName	String	Yes	The name of the HBase table to delete. The table will be disabled first if it is currently enabled.

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
result (deleteRow)	boolean	Returns `true` upon successful row deletion.
result (deleteColumn)	boolean	Returns `true` upon successful cell deletion.
result (deleteTable)	boolean	Returns `true` upon successful table deletion.

Usage Examples

// 1. Delete an entire row
boolean rowDeleted = HBaseUtils.deleteRow("users", "row1");
System.out.println("Row deleted: " + rowDeleted);

// 2. Delete a specific cell (column)
boolean cellDeleted = HBaseUtils.deleteColumn("users", "row2", "info", "email");
System.out.println("Cell deleted: " + cellDeleted);

// 3. Delete an entire table (disables then deletes)
boolean tableDeleted = HBaseUtils.deleteTable("old_users");
System.out.println("Table deleted: " + tableDeleted);

The internal implementation for each method:

// deleteRow - internal logic (simplified)
Table table = connection.getTable(TableName.valueOf(tableName));
Delete delete = new Delete(Bytes.toBytes(rowKey));
table.delete(delete);
table.close();
return true;

// deleteColumn - internal logic (simplified)
Table table = connection.getTable(TableName.valueOf(tableName));
Delete delete = new Delete(Bytes.toBytes(rowKey));
delete.addColumn(Bytes.toBytes(familyName), Bytes.toBytes(qualifier));
table.delete(delete);
table.close();
return true;

// deleteTable - internal logic (simplified)
Admin admin = connection.getAdmin();
TableName tn = TableName.valueOf(tableName);
admin.disableTable(tn);   // Step 1: disable
admin.deleteTable(tn);    // Step 2: delete
admin.close();
return true;

Related Pages

Implements Principle

Principle:Heibaiying_BigData_Notes_HBase_Data_Deletion

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