Name

UPDATE

Syntax

UPDATE [LOW_PRIORITY] [IGNORE] table 
SET column=value, ...
[WHERE clause]
[LIMIT n]

Description

Alters data within a table. You may use the name of a column as a value when setting a new value. For example, UPDATE health SET miles_ran=miles_ran+5 would add five to the current value of the miles_ran column.

The syntax and common operators of the WHERE clause are shown in Chapter 3. The WHERE clause limits updates to matching rows. The LIMIT clause ensures that only n rows change. The statement returns the number of rows changed.

You must have UPDATE privileges to use this statement.

Example

# Change the name 'John Deo' to 'John Doe' everywhere in the people table.
UPDATE people SET name='John Doe' WHERE name='John Deo'

Get Managing & Using MySQL, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial