What is the difference between Delete and Obliterate?

kyle · Post by **kyle** » Wed May 07, 2008 10:12 am

And, would deleting old branches make a positive difference in performance? If so, why would it help?

From what I gather, deleting branches keeps the data in the database... it's just sort of "hidden". It's not really deleted until it's been Obliterated, correct?

What are the benefits of deleting older branches we no longer need?

Post by **jeremy_sg** » Wed May 07, 2008 10:51 am

Yes, your understanding is correct. Deleting old branches does keep them in the database. In the majority of cases, just removing the items from the current tree is enough to provide needed performance benefits.

Obliterate is a destructive operation that is very time consuming. Usually, SQL server is fine with having unreferenced data. My advice is to delete first, live with it for a few weeks and then reevaluate if you think that you need to obliterate.