Database Cleanup

When working with the database, if you delete a question (a column) and regenerate the database, the question and its data will no longer be visible or available in the database. However the data that was held in the column will not be removed from the database file in the first instance, it will merely be hidden. This is for two reasons:

• With a large database the operation to delete the data will take a considerable amount of time and resources and will have a significant impact on the server performance during the time the deletion is in progress. It is therefore more practical to “save up” a number of deletion operations and run them simultaneously, thereby only causing one disturbance in the server instead of several.
• If you should later wish to “undelete” the column, you can do this relatively easily while the data remains in the database (go to Undeleting an Object for more information).

Note: Once you have performed a Database Cleanup, the questions and associated data will be removed permanently from the database. You cannot then “undelete”.

The Database Cleanup function completely removes deleted questions/columns, and the associated data, from the database. Once the data is deleted by the Cleanup function, if you later need that data then you must re-import it.

1. Go to the Panel Utilities > Database Cleanup menu command.

The Database Cleanup page opens. This page contains a list of the questions that have been deleted from the database.

2. Check the boxes beside those questions you wish to delete permanently from the database.
3. Click Delete Columns.

A confirmation box with the selected questions listed appears.

4. Click Delete to remove the questions and data permanently from the database.