O'Reilly Network: aboutSQL: UPDATE that Data!

Dec 23, 2000, 23:58 (1 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by John Paul Ashenfelter)

"Just as with the previous SELECT and INSERT SQL statements, the UPDATE statement is in the rough format of an English sentence:

UPDATE table_name SET column_name = value

So, to go back to the MusicCollection table we've been using throughout the column, I think we need to change the Artist field of the third album from Bruce Hornsby to "Bruce Hornsby and the Range" to be more accurate. ... We can try to use the UPDATE statement to make our change (remembering that text values are always enclosed in single quotes in SQL).

UPDATE MusicCollection SET Artist ='Bruce Hornsby and the Range';

"The WHERE clause is used to modify a SQL statement by limiting the operations to a filtered subset of the database. ... I'd suggest using a SELECT * statement with the same WHERE clause, which gives you a quick view of the records that will be affected before you do anything rash. Some database administrators go as far as to password-restrict this SQL statement to only certain users to prevent damage to the database."

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• O'Reilly Network: AboutSQL: Introducing SELECT(Nov 04, 2000)
• O'Reilly Network: Getting Started with SQL(Oct 29, 2000)
• O'Reilly Network: What's the Big Deal about SQL?(Oct 29, 2000)