How can I replace & with an ampersand in my MySQL database?

To replace & with an ampersand, use MySQL REPLACE(). Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable(
   Id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
   Value varchar(100)
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.06 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable(Value) values('@amp');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.33 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable(Value) values('&');
Query OK, 1 row affected (1.09 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable(Value) values('#amp');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.28 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+----+-------+
| Id | Value |
+----+-------+
| 1  | @amp  |
| 2  | &     |
| 3  | #amp  |
+----+-------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to replace & with ampersand −

mysql> update DemoTable set Value=replace(Value,'&','&');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.56 sec)
Rows matched: 3 Changed: 1 Warnings: 0

Let us check the table records once again −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+----+-------+
| Id | Value |
+----+-------+
| 1  | @amp  |
| 2  | &     |
| 3  | #amp  |
+----+-------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)