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3 The modification of data that is already in the database is
4 referred to as updating. You can update individual rows, all the
5 rows in a table, or a subset of all rows. Each column can be
6 updated separately; the other columns are not affected.
8 To update existing rows, use the <a class="xref" href="sql-update.html" title="UPDATE"><span class="refentrytitle">UPDATE</span></a>
10 three pieces of information:
11 </p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist compact" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>The name of the table and column to update</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>The new value of the column</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Which row(s) to update</p></li></ol></div><p>
13 Recall from <a class="xref" href="ddl.html" title="Chapter 5. Data Definition">Chapter 5</a> that SQL does not, in general,
14 provide a unique identifier for rows. Therefore it is not
15 always possible to directly specify which row to update.
16 Instead, you specify which conditions a row must meet in order to
17 be updated. Only if you have a primary key in the table (independent of
18 whether you declared it or not) can you reliably address individual rows
19 by choosing a condition that matches the primary key.
20 Graphical database access tools rely on this fact to allow you to
21 update rows individually.
23 For example, this command updates all products that have a price of
24 5 to have a price of 10:
25 </p><pre class="programlisting">
26 UPDATE products SET price = 10 WHERE price = 5;
28 This might cause zero, one, or many rows to be updated. It is not
29 an error to attempt an update that does not match any rows.
31 Let's look at that command in detail. First is the key word
32 <code class="literal">UPDATE</code> followed by the table name. As usual,
33 the table name can be schema-qualified, otherwise it is looked up
34 in the path. Next is the key word <code class="literal">SET</code> followed
35 by the column name, an equal sign, and the new column value. The
36 new column value can be any scalar expression, not just a constant.
37 For example, if you want to raise the price of all products by 10%
39 </p><pre class="programlisting">
40 UPDATE products SET price = price * 1.10;
42 As you see, the expression for the new value can refer to the existing
43 value(s) in the row. We also left out the <code class="literal">WHERE</code> clause.
44 If it is omitted, it means that all rows in the table are updated.
45 If it is present, only those rows that match the
46 <code class="literal">WHERE</code> condition are updated. Note that the equals
47 sign in the <code class="literal">SET</code> clause is an assignment while
48 the one in the <code class="literal">WHERE</code> clause is a comparison, but
49 this does not create any ambiguity. Of course, the
50 <code class="literal">WHERE</code> condition does
51 not have to be an equality test. Many other operators are
52 available (see <a class="xref" href="functions.html" title="Chapter 9. Functions and Operators">Chapter 9</a>). But the expression
53 needs to evaluate to a Boolean result.
55 You can update more than one column in an
56 <code class="command">UPDATE</code> command by listing more than one
57 assignment in the <code class="literal">SET</code> clause. For example:
58 </p><pre class="programlisting">
59 UPDATE mytable SET a = 5, b = 3, c = 1 WHERE a > 0;
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