How to Delete a Key in Redis: Simple Syntax and Examples

To delete a key in Redis, use the DEL command followed by the key name. For example, DEL mykey removes the key named mykey from the database.

Syntax

The DEL command removes one or more keys from Redis. If the key exists, it is deleted; if not, Redis ignores it.

• DEL key1 [key2 ...]: Deletes specified keys.
• Returns the number of keys that were actually removed.

redis

DEL key1

Output

(integer) 1

Example

This example shows how to set a key, delete it, and check if it still exists.

redis

SET mykey "Hello"
DEL mykey
EXISTS mykey

Output

(integer) 1
(integer) 1
(integer) 0

Common Pitfalls

One common mistake is trying to delete a key that does not exist, which returns 0 but does not cause an error. Another is confusing DEL with UNLINK, which deletes keys asynchronously.

Also, deleting keys in a pipeline or transaction requires care to check results properly.

redis

DEL nonexistingkey
-- returns (integer) 0

-- Correct usage:
DEL existingkey

Output

(integer) 0
(integer) 1

Quick Reference

Command	Description	Return Value
DEL key	Deletes the specified key	Number of keys deleted (0 or 1)
DEL key1 key2	Deletes multiple keys at once	Number of keys deleted
EXISTS key	Checks if a key exists	1 if exists, 0 if not

Key Takeaways

Use the DEL command followed by the key name to delete keys in Redis.

DEL returns the number of keys it successfully deleted, which can be zero if the key does not exist.

You can delete multiple keys at once by listing them after DEL.

Deleting a non-existing key does not cause an error, it simply returns 0.

For asynchronous deletion, consider using UNLINK instead of DEL.