Slide 7.11: SQL update statement

SQL Update Statement

The UPDATE statement is used to update existing records in a table. Notice the where clause in the update syntax. The where clause specifies which record or records that should be updated.

If you omit the where clause, all records will be updated! Assume the Persons table is given below:

 UPDATE  table_name
   SET column1=value, column2=value2, ...
   WHERE some_column=some_value

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Timoteivn 10	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Storgt 20	Stavanger
4	Rasmussen		Storgt 67

 UPDATE  Persons  SET  FirstName = 'Nina'
   WHERE  LastName = 'Rasmussen';
 UPDATE  Persons
   SET Address = 'Nissestien 67', City = 'Sandnes';

The result tables from the above two updates are shown below:

The first update adds a first name to the person with a last name of “Rasmussen.”

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Timoteivn 10	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Storgt 20	Stavanger
4	Rasmussen	Nina	Storgt 67

The second update is without a where clause. Thus, all records are updated.

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Nissestien 67	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Nissestien 67	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Nissestien 67	Sandnes
4	Rasmussen	Nina	Nissestien 67	Sandnes

Demonstration
The following is an SQL test area from W3Schools, which uses the well-known Northwind sample database and the tables are for read only.

For security reasons, the following demonstration may only work in Chrome.

Result:

Click “Run SQL” to execute the SQL statement above.

W3Schools has created an SQL database in your browser.

The menu to the right displays the database, and will reflect any changes.

Feel free to experiment with any SQL statement.

You can restore the database at any time.

The Database includes:

Tablenames	Records
Customers	91
Categories	8
Employees	10
OrderDetails	518
Orders	196
Products	77
Shippers	3
Suppliers	29

SQL Statement:

Result:

W3C WebSQL

WebSQL Browser Support