IT Training

Welcome to Lesson 5 of the TSQL Tutorial. In this lesson we will cover update statements. I hope you enjoy the lesson.

Select Statements

UPDATE

The UPDATE statement is used to update or modify data in a table.

Usage:

UPDATE table
SET column = new value
WHERE column = value
Example: We want to change Andrew Fuller's title from "Vice President, Sales" to "CEO".
         (Note: When using an update statement, it is very important to limit the 
          scope by using a where clause.  If no where clause is used, all the records
          will have the title CEO.)
(This is the employees table before we run the update statement.)

EmployeeID

LastName

FirstName

Title

BirthDate

HireDate

Address

City

1

Davolio

Nancy

Sales Representative

12/8/1948

5/1/1992

507 - 20th Ave. E.

Seattle

2

Fuller

Andrew

Vice President, Sales

2/19/1952

8/14/1992

908 W. Capital Way

Tacoma

3

Leverling

Janet

Sales Representative

8/30/1963

4/1/1992

722 Moss Bay Blvd.

Kirkland

4

Peacock

Margaret

Sales Representative

9/19/1937

5/3/1993

4110 Old Redmond Rd.

Redmond

5

Buchanan

Steven

Sales Manager

3/4/1955

10/17/1993

14 Garrett Hill

London

6

Suyama

Michael

Sales Representative

7/2/1963

10/17/1993

123 Miner Rd.

London

8

Callahan

Laura

Inside Sales Coordinator

1/9/1958

3/5/1994

4726 - 11th Ave. N.E.

Seattle

9

Dodsworth

Anne

Sales Representative

1/27/1966

11/15/1994

7 Houndstooth Rd.

London

10

Smith

John

Accountant

1/1/1970

2/2/2005

123 Main St

Denver

 Notice that in our update statement, in the where clause, we opted to use the unique field
 EmployeeID. We did not want a field like FirstName in our where clause because 
 in a large company there may be multiple people with the same first name.)
   
(Now we will run our update statement below.)
UPDATE employees
SET title = 'CEO'
WHERE EmployeeID = 2

Results:
(1 row(s) affected)
(This is the employees table after we run the update statement. Note that EmployeeID 2
 Andrew Fuller has the title of CEO.)

EmployeeID

LastName

FirstName

Title

BirthDate

HireDate

Address

City

1

Davolio

Nancy

Sales Representative

12/8/1948

5/1/1992

507 - 20th Ave. E.

Seattle

2

Fuller

Andrew

CEO

2/19/1952

8/14/1992

908 W. Capital Way

Tacoma

3

Leverling

Janet

Sales Representative

8/30/1963

4/1/1992

722 Moss Bay Blvd.

Kirkland

4

Peacock

Margaret

Sales Representative

9/19/1937

5/3/1993

4110 Old Redmond Rd.

Redmond

5

Buchanan

Steven

Sales Manager

3/4/1955

10/17/1993

14 Garrett Hill

London

6

Suyama

Michael

Sales Representative

7/2/1963

10/17/1993

123 Miner Rd.

London

8

Callahan

Laura

Inside Sales Coordinator

1/9/1958

3/5/1994

4726 - 11th Ave. N.E.

Seattle

9

Dodsworth

Anne

Sales Representative

1/27/1966

11/15/1994

7 Houndstooth Rd.

London

10

Smith

John

Accountant

1/1/1970

2/2/2005

123 Main St

Denver