Scribd
Upload
71 views

Update Data in A MySQL Database

This document explains how to update existing data in a MySQL database. It describes using the UPDATE statement to change a unit ID from 1 to 2 where the fruit ID is 1. It also discusses running updates in safe mode to prevent accidentally updating multiple records, and how to disable safe mode for needed updates.

Uploaded by

Ifra fatima
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
71 views

Update Data in A MySQL Database

This document explains how to update existing data in a MySQL database. It describes using the UPDATE statement to change a unit ID from 1 to 2 where the fruit ID is 1. It also discusses running updates in safe mode to prevent accidentally updating multiple records, and how to disable safe mode for needed updates.

Uploaded by

Ifra fatima
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

Name & Roll No: Khadija Akhtar 18CS05

Update Data in a MySQL Database


This page explains how to update existing data in a MySQL
database.

So we've already added data to our database. But now we realize that our data contains
a mistake. Apples have been assigned a UnitId of 1 — but this should be 2.

You can see this here:

No problem. We'll just update that record.

The UPDATE Statement
The SQL UPDATE statement allows us to update the data in our database. We can use
this statement to change the unit ID from 1 to 2. To do this, we use the WHERE clause to
specify the exact record we need to update. Like this:
UPDATE Fruit
SET UnitId = 2
WHERE FruitId = 1;
Generally, it's advisable when doing an UPDATE operation, to specify the ID field of the
record you're attempting to update (or whatever its primary key is). This helps guard
against accidentally updating the wrong record/s. In this example we knew that apples
had an FruitId of 1. But you might not always know the ID of the record you're trying to
update. In that case you could do something like this:

UPDATE Fruit
SET UnitId = 2
WHERE FruitName = 'Apple' AND UnitId = 1;
We can follow either of those up with a SELECT statement and here's the result:

Note that the DateUpdated column has been updated too, even though we didn't specify
an update for that column. This is because, when we created the table, we set that
column to be updated with the current date/time every time there was an update to the
record.

Here's the code we used when we created that column:

DateUpdated TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP


More specifically, it is the ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP that resulted in the column being
updated just now when we ran the UPDATE statement.

Safe Updates
We could just as easily have constructed our UPDATE command like this (without AND
UnitId = 1):

UPDATE Fruit
SET UnitId = 2
WHERE FruitName = 'Apple';
However, you might encounter the following error if you try to do that:

Safe Updates Mode


If you encounter the above error, it's because your MySQL connection is running in Safe
Updates mode. This helps prevent us from overwriting large amounts of data
accidentally. In fact, if we had forgotten to include the WHERE clause we would have
updated every single record in the table!

Yes, running the following code will result in every record in our table being updated
to Banana:

UPDATE Fruit
SET FruitName = 'Banana'
So there is a real benefit to be had by running in Safe Updates mode.

However, if you really do need to execute that query (or if all your fruit really has turned
into bananas), you can do one of the following:

 Modify your query to include a KEY column. We did this in the examples at the top of this
page.
 Disable Safe Updates mode.

Disable Safe Updates Mode


If you find that you need to perform an UPDATE operation without using a KEY field, you can
always disable Safe Updates mode.

To disable Safe Updates mode, run the following command prior to running
your UPDATEstatement:

set sql_safe_updates = 0;
It's always a good idea to restore the setting to its previous state once you're done —
especially with settings that could have a widespread impact like this one.

To enable Safe Updates mode, run the following:


set sql_safe_updates = 1;
In fact, you could run everything at the same time, like this:

set sql_safe_updates = 0;

UPDATE Fruit
SET UnitId = 2
WHERE FruitName = 'Apple';

select * from Fruit;

set sql_safe_updates = 1;

Update Multiple Fields


You can update multiple fields by using a comma to separate each field assignment.
Like this:

UPDATE Fruit
SET FruitName = 'Red Grapes', Inventory = '11'
WHERE FruitId = 5;
Result:
OUTPUT OF Update Data in a MySQL Database

You might also like