TRUNCATE TABLE empties a table completely. Logically, this is
equivalent to a DELETE statement that deletes all rows, but there are
practical differences under some circumstances.
For an InnoDB table before version 5.0.3, InnoDB processes TRUNCATE
TABLE by deleting rows one by one. As of MySQL 5.0.3, row by row
deletion is used only if there are any FOREIGN KEY constraints that
reference the table. If there are no FOREIGN KEY constraints, InnoDB
performs fast truncation by dropping the original table and creating
an empty one with the same definition, which is much faster than
deleting rows one by one. (When fast truncation is used, it resets any
AUTO_INCREMENT counter to zero. From MySQL 5.0.13 on, the
AUTO_INCREMENT counter is reset to zero by TRUNCATE TABLE, regardless
of whether there is a foreign key constraint.)
In the case that FOREIGN KEY constraints reference the table, InnoDB
deletes rows one by one and processes the constraints on each one. If
the FOREIGN KEY constraint specifies DELETE CASCADE, rows from the
child (referenced) table are deleted, and the truncated table becomes
empty. If the FOREIGN KEY constraint does not specify CASCADE, the
TRUNCATE TABLE statement deletes rows one by one and stops if it
encounters a parent row that is referenced by the child, returning
this error:
ERROR 1451 (23000): Cannot delete or update a parent row: a foreign
key constraint fails (test.child, CONSTRAINT child_ibfk_1
FOREIGN KEY (parent_id) REFERENCES parent (id))