Sharepoint - How to delete all items in a List using PowerShell
I took a stab at converting Servy'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."
The approach of deleting the list and recreating the list is the fastest & most efficient (since you are deleting all the list items) -
Get-SPWeb $FooUrl | % { $_.Lists.Delete([System.Guid]$_.Lists["FooList"].ID) }
The above deletes the list and you can then recreate the list with its template, etc.
I have very similar code with one code difference and mine is pretty fast.
Change
$collListItems.Delete($intIndex);
to
$collListItems[$intIndex].Delete()
I think adding ; at the end of each line is optional in PS.