SQL error ‘ER_OPERAND_COLUMNS: Operand should contain 1 column(s)’ for DELETE function

Trying to delete rows that exist in both temp_abstract table and abstract table.

DELETE FROM temp_abstracts 
WHERE application_id IN
    (SELECT temp_abstracts.application_id, abstracts.application_id 
    FROM temp_abstracts INNER JOIN abstracts 
    ON temp_abstracts.application_id=abstracts.application_id)
    ;

When I just run what’s inside the parentheses it returns what I want, but adding a delete from where seems to throw this error. Any help?

Answer

You can use EXISTS instead :

DELETE ta
FROM temp_abstracts ta 
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM abstracts a WHERE a.application_id = ta.application_id);

Sub-query will return only one expression while using IN OR NOT IN.