How to delete multiple entities using Doctrine QueryBuilder - sql

Question

I am working on a Symfony 2.8 based project to manage contact. The user can select from a list any number of contacts and should be able to delete all selected contacts at once. How can this be done in a single Query Builder statement?
// Contact entity uses a GUID as ID
$guids = array(...);
try {
$this->getEntityManager()->getConnection()->beginTransaction();
$qb = $this->getEntityManager()->getConnection()->createQueryBuilder()
->delete('AppBundle:Contact', 'c')
->where('c.guid in (:guids)')
->setParameter(':guids', array($guids, Connection::PARAM_STR_ARRAY));
log($qb->getSql());
$qb->execute();
$this->getEntityManager()->flush();
$this->getEntityManager()->getConnection()->commit();
} catch (\Exception $ex) {
// Rollback the transaction
$this->getEntityManager()->getConnection()->rollback();
}
1. Problem
Addressing the entity with AppBundle:Contact (which works without any problem when building a SELECT statement) does not work. This is the log output:
Query: DELETE FROM AppBundle:Contact c WHERE c.guid in (:guids)
Exception: Doctrine\DBAL\SQLParserUtilsException: Value for :Contact not found in params array. Params array key should be "Contact" in
2. Problem
Using the table name instead (->delete('contact', 'c')) does not work as well:
Query: DELETE FROM contact c WHERE c.guid in (:guids)
Exception: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'c WHERE c.guid in ('Array')'
3. Problem
Deleting a single entity does not work either:
->delete('contact', 'c')
->where('c.guid = (:guid)')
->setParameter(':guid', $guids[0]);
Query: DELETE FROM contact c WHERE c.guid = :guid
Exception: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'c WHERE c.guid = 'E7516B91-0549-4FFB-85F2-4BD03DC3FFC1''
What might be wrong her?

Answer 1

1st. Problem. Change setParameter line to the following, you don't need to use : in name of param.
->setParameter('guids', $guids);
Second problem - you should not use real table name if you're dealing with queryBuilder.
Third problem - your logic is not correct. If you want to delete single then
$qb = $this->getEntityManager()->createQueryBuilder()
->delete('AppBundle:Contact', 'c')
->where('c.guid = :guid')
->setParameter('guid', $guids[0]);
Additionally
I don't really know what doctrine version you're using, but
$this->getEntityManager()->getConnection()->createQueryBuilder() - seems wrong, because usually you're getting connection if you want to execute RAW SQL.
Try to change to
$qb = $this->getEntityManager()->createQueryBuilder()
And you need to use brackets around the variable only if it's array. Check code below
$queryBuilder->andWhere('r.id IN (:ids)')
->setParameter('ids', $ids);

Answer 2

Unless you want to execute raw SQL, you don't have to use your entity manager's connection, so you can replace $this->getEntityManager()->getConnection()->createQueryBuilder() by
$em->createQueryBuilder()
You could do something like
$qb = $this->createQueryBuilder()
->delete('AppBundle:Contact', 'c')
->where('c.guid in (:guids)')
->setParameter(':guids', $guids);
And if you want to log/execute it
$query = $qb->getQuery();
log($query->getSql());
$query->execute();
You also don't need to add the beginTransaction and rollback, if the query fails and an exception is thrown, doctrine will rollback automatically.