An exemplary embodiment of a multi-tenant database system is provided. The system includes a multi-tenant database, an entity definition table, and a data processing engine. The database has database objects for multiple tenants, including an existing object for a designated tenant. Each entry in the existing object has a respective entity identifier. The definition table has metadata entries for the database objects, including a metadata entry for the existing object. This metadata entry has a tenant identifier for the designated tenant, an entity name for the existing object, and an old key prefix for the existing object. Each entity identifier of the existing object begins with the old key prefix. The engine performs a data truncation operation on the existing object by updating the metadata entry to replace the old key prefix with a new key prefix. This results in an updated object that is identified by the new key prefix and the tenant identifier.