Deleting all the items from a large list in SharePoint

Question

What is the most efficient way to delete all the items of a large list in SharePoint? The code should take Query throttling limits into consideration.

Answer 1

I took a stab at converting IAfanasov's answer into PowerShell. Seems to work for me, but would be interested in any feedback.

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a")

write-host 

# Enter your configuration here
$siteUrl = "http://mysharepointsite.example.com/"
$listName = "Name of my list"
$batchSize = 1000

write-host "Opening web at $siteUrl..."

$site = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteUrl)
$web = $site.OpenWeb()
write-host "Web is: $($web.Title)"

$list = $web.Lists[$listName];
write-host "List is: $($list.Title)"

while ($list.ItemCount -gt 0)
{
  write-host "Item count: $($list.ItemCount)"

  $batch = "<?xml version=`"1.0`" encoding=`"UTF-8`"?><Batch>"
  $i = 0

  foreach ($item in $list.Items)
  {
    $i++
    write-host "`rProcessing ID: $($item.ID) ($i of $batchSize)" -nonewline

    $batch += "<Method><SetList Scope=`"Request`">$($list.ID)</SetList><SetVar Name=`"ID`">$($item.ID)</SetVar><SetVar Name=`"Cmd`">Delete</SetVar><SetVar Name=`"owsfileref`">$($item.File.ServerRelativeUrl)</SetVar></Method>"

    if ($i -ge $batchSize) { break }
  }

  $batch += "</Batch>"

  write-host

  write-host "Sending batch..."

  # We execute it 
  $result = $web.ProcessBatchData($batch)

  write-host "Emptying Recycle Bin..."

  # We remove items from recyclebin
  $web.RecycleBin.DeleteAll()

  write-host

  $list.Update()
}

write-host "Done."

Answer 2

The most efficient way to a lot of transaction in SharePoint is using of SPWeb.ProcessBatchData method. For deleting operations there are very helpfull post. Code exaple from that post:

    // We prepare a String.Format with a String.Format, this is why we have a {{0}} 
   string command = String.Format("<Method><SetList Scope=\"Request\">{0}</SetList><SetVar Name=\"ID\">{{0}}</SetVar><SetVar Name=\"Cmd\">Delete</SetVar><SetVar Name=\"owsfileref\">{{1}}</SetVar></Method>", list.ID);
   // We get everything but we limit the result to 100 rows 
   SPQuery q = new SPQuery();
   q.RowLimit = 100;

   // While there's something left 
   while (list.ItemCount > 0)
   {
    // We get the results 
    SPListItemCollection coll = list.GetItems(q);

    StringBuilder sbDelete = new StringBuilder();
    sbDelete.Append("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><Batch>");

    Guid[] ids = new Guid[coll.Count];
    for (int i=0;i<coll.Count;i++)
    {
     SPListItem item = coll[i];
     sbDelete.Append(string.Format(command, item.ID.ToString(), item.File.ServerRelativeUrl));
     ids[i] = item.UniqueId;
    }
    sbDelete.Append("</Batch>");

    // We execute it 
    web.ProcessBatchData(sbDelete.ToString());

    //We remove items from recyclebin
    web.RecycleBin.Delete(ids);

    list.Update();
   }
  }

Answer 3

I like IAfanasov's response. ProcesBatchData is the way to go.

But you are asking about the "most efficient way to delete all the items of a large list". The most efficient way is to delete the list and re-create it, if you really want to delete all items. It will be a lot quicker than doing any iterative actions.