Update Table Records using SQL

To update records using SQL:

UPDATE table_name
SET column_1 = value_1, column_2 = value_2, ...
WHERE condition

The Example

Suppose that you created a table, where:

• The table name is: product
• The table has 3 columns: product_id, product_name and price

The ‘product’ table also contains the following 6 records:

Here is the query to create the product table:

CREATE TABLE product (
	product_id int primary key,
	product_name nvarchar(50),
	price int
)

And here is the query to insert the 6 records into the table:

INSERT INTO product (product_id, product_name, price)

VALUES

(1,'Computer',800),
(2,'TV',1200),
(3,'Printer',150),
(4,'Desk',400),
(5,'Chair',120),
(6,'Tablet',300)

Next, you’ll see how to update the records in the table across the 2 scenarios below.

Scenario 1: Update a Single Record using SQL

Suppose that you want to update the last record in the ‘product‘ table (this record currently represents the ‘Tablet’ product), where:

• The product_name will be updated to ‘Keyboard‘
• The price will be updated to 70

You can then run the query below to perform the update:

UPDATE product
SET product_name = 'Keyboard', price = 70
WHERE product_id = 6

To verify that the record was updated, run the following SELECT query:

SELECT * FROM product

As you can see, the product_name is now ‘Keyboard‘ and the price is 70 for the last record (i.e., product_id = 6):

Scenario 2: Update an Entire Column

Lastly, update the ‘price‘ column by increasing the price by 100 across all the records:

UPDATE product
SET price = price + 100

Run the SELECT query below in order to observe the results:

SELECT * FROM product

As you can see, the price increased by 100 across all the records in the ‘product’ table:

You may also want to learn how to:

• Insert Records Into a Table using SQL
• Delete Records from a Table using SQL