Lesson 5: Delete Student (DELETE)

📘 Introduction

In this lesson, students will learn how to delete a student record from the database using MySQLi procedural programming. This is the “D” in CRUD — DELETE. We will create a simple delete script that removes a record based on its ID.

Deleting data is a critical part of CRUD applications, and students must understand how to safely handle deletion operations.

🗑️ Step 1: Capture the Student ID

When the user clicks the Delete button, they are redirected to:

delete.php?id=3

We use $_GET['id'] to capture the student ID.

$id = $_GET['id'];

⚠️ Step 2: Delete the Record

We use the SQL DELETE command to remove the record from the database.

$sql = "DELETE FROM students WHERE id = $id";
mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

This removes the student permanently.

🔁 Step 3: Redirect Back to Main Page

After deleting the record, redirect the user back to the student list.

header("Location: index.php");
exit;

🧠 Syntax Breakdown

• $_GET — retrieves the student ID from the URL.
• DELETE FROM students WHERE id = X — deletes the specific record.
• mysqli_query() — executes the SQL delete command.
• header() — redirects after deletion.

🧪 Exercise

Create a confirmation page before deleting a record:

• Ask the user: “Are you sure you want to delete this student?”
• Provide two buttons: Yes and No
• If “No” is clicked, redirect back to index.php

This teaches students how to prevent accidental deletions.