Compile full DELETE with JOIN including ORDER BY and LIMIT in MySQL grammar

[tegos]

Problem

By default, Laravel silently ignores ORDER BY and LIMIT on DELETE … JOIN queries when using the MySQL grammar.
This results in unexpected behavior: instead of deleting rows in small batches, the query deletes all matching rows at once.

Example:

$batchSize = 500;
$totalDeleted = 0;

do {
	$deleted = DB::table('cross_product_references as cpr')
		->leftJoin('products as p1', fn($join) => $join
			->on('cpr.article', '=', 'p1.article')
			->on('cpr.brand_id', '=', 'p1.brand_id'))
		->leftJoin('products as p2', fn($join) => $join
			->on('cpr.cross_article', '=', 'p2.article')
			->on('cpr.cross_brand_id', '=', 'p2.brand_id'))
		->where(fn($query) => $query
			->whereNull('p1.id')
			->orWhereNull('p2.id'))
		->limit($batchSize)
		->orderBy('cpr.id')
		->delete();
	$totalDeleted += $deleted;
} while ($deleted > 0);

$this->line("Deleted <info>$totalDeleted</info> rows.");

Expected: delete in batches of 500
Actual: deletes all 500k+ rows in one query

---

Fix

• Added compileDeleteWithJoins override in MySqlGrammar.
• Now compiles full SQL with JOIN, ORDER BY, and LIMIT instead of stripping them.
• Leaves it to the underlying MySQL/MariaDB/Vitess implementation to decide whether the query is valid.

---

Why

• Avoids silent ignoring of ORDER BY and LIMIT, which could lead to accidental mass deletions.
• Provides consistent behavior: Laravel now generates the full query requested by the developer.
• Compatible with systems like Vitess, which do support DELETE … JOIN … ORDER BY/LIMIT.
• On vanilla MySQL, developers will now get QueryException.

[crynobone]

Moved to draft as tests are failing

[tegos]

update tests to cover mysql specific delete with join restrictions

[GrahamCampbell]

Why not just generate the invalid statement always, so that you get the error back from MySQL?

[tegos]

@GrahamCampbell
Currently there is no compileDeleteWithJoins implementation in MySqlGrammar.
I chose to throw a RuntimeException instead of compiling invalid SQL because it fails fast and avoids silently stripping ORDER BY/LIMIT.
This provides a clear, framework-level error rather than a generic syntax error from MySQL.
Implementing full join/order/limit compilation just to produce invalid SQL would add unnecessary complexity and likely touch many more parts of the grammar.
This way the behavior stays predictable and safer across environments.

RuntimeException
MySQL does not support ORDER BY on DELETE statements with JOIN clauses.
at vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Query/Grammars/MySqlGrammar.php:352

Illuminate\Database\QueryException
SQLSTATE[42000]: 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 'order by `cpr`.`id` asc' at line 1 (Connection: mysql, SQL: delete `cpr` from `cross_product_references` as `cpr` left join `products` as `p1` on `cpr`.`article` = `p1`.`article` and `cpr`.`brand_id` = `p1`.`brand_id` left join `products` as `p2` on `cpr`.`cross_article` = `p2`.`article` and `cpr`.`cross_brand_id` = `p2`.`brand_id` where (`p1`.`id` is null or `p2`.`id` is null or `p1`.`category_id` in (9) or `p2`.`category_id` in (9)) order by `cpr`.`id` asc)
at vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Connection.php:829

[GrahamCampbell]

Some MySQL servers do support delete join with limit and order by though. For example Vitess and PlanetScale. vitessio/vitess#14959

[GrahamCampbell]

It works by selecting the rows with a lock for update, and then performing the delete using a wherein.

[tegos]

@GrahamCampbell
True, Vitess/PlanetScale support this by rewriting the query internally,
but that's not native MySQL behavior. 😄
We're targeting the standard MySQL driver here, not clustering systems or proxies that add their own SQL semantics.
With the current MySqlGrammar, Laravel would silently drop LIMIT/ORDER BY on deletes with joins, potentially removing all rows.
By throwing an explicit exception, developers can immediately see the problem and apply the known workaround
(e.g. select IDs with FOR UPDATE then delete with WHERE IN). This keeps Laravel's behavior consistent and predictable.

[GrahamCampbell]

I still think it's better to just allow the server to complain the query is invalid.

[tegos]

@GrahamCampbell
so what actually are you offering? could you tell what need to change?

[taylorotwell]

I sort of agree that maybe we should just add the LIMIT and if the underlying MySQL system doesn't like it then it will error anyways? But, those using PlanetScale would still be able to use that feature?

[tegos]

@taylorotwell agree, maybe it's better option and good compromise. And this still solve my initial problem. I've changed title and description. Enable ORDER BY and LIMIT compilation in MySQL DELETE … JOIN queries, updating tests to assert full SQL generation.

[taylorotwell]

Can we send this to master branch? I'm a bit worried about this breaking existing applications if people build up a query builder instance with an orderBy then re-use that instance to perform a delete.

[tegos]

I'll close this PR and open a new one against master with a clean branch based on the latest upstream.