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UPDATE

Description

The UPDATE statement is used to modify the existing records in a table.

Syntax

Single-table Syntax

UPDATE table_reference
    SET assignment_list
    [WHERE where_condition]
    [ORDER BY ...]
    [LIMIT row_count]

Explanations

  • The UPDATE statement updates columns of existing rows in the named table with new values.
  • The SET clause indicates which columns to modify and the values they should be given. Each value can be given as an expression, or the keyword DEFAULT to set a column explicitly to its default value.
  • The WHERE clause, if given, specifies the conditions that identify which rows to update. With no WHERE clause, all rows are updated.
  • If the ORDER BY clause is specified, the rows are updated in the order that is specified.
  • The LIMIT clause places a limit on the number of rows that can be updated.

Examples

  • Single-table Examples
CREATE TABLE t1 (a bigint(3), b bigint(5) primary key);
insert INTO t1 VALUES (1,1),(1,2);
update t1 set a=2 where a=1 limit 1;

mysql> select * from t1;
+------+------+
| a    | b    |
+------+------+
|    2 |    1 |
|    1 |    2 |
+------+------+
  • Multiple-table Examples
drop table if exists t1;
create table t1 (a int);
insert into t1 values(1), (2), (4);
drop table if exists t2;
create table t2 (b int);
insert into t2 values(1), (2), (3);
update t1, t2 set a = 1, b =2;

mysql> select * from t1;
+------+
| a    |
+------+
|    1 |
|    1 |
|    1 |
+------+

update t1, t2 set a = null, b =null;

mysql> select * from t2;
+------+
| b    |
+------+
| NULL |
| NULL |
| NULL |
+------+
mysql> select * from t1;
+------+
| a    |
+------+
| NULL |
| NULL |
| NULL |
+------+

Multiple-table join Syntax is also supported.

drop table if exists t1;
drop table if exists t2;
create table t1 (a int, b int, c int);
insert into t1 values(1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6), (7, 8, 9);
create table t2 (a int, b int, c int);
insert into t2 values(1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6), (7, 8, 9);
update t1 join t2 on t1.a = t2.a set t1.b = 222, t1.c = 333, t2.b = 222, t2.c = 333;

mysql> select * from t1;
+------+------+------+
| a    | b    | c    |
+------+------+------+
|    1 |  222 |  333 |
|    4 |  222 |  333 |
|    7 |  222 |  333 |
+------+------+------+

mysql> with t11 as (select * from (select * from t1) as t22) update t11 join t2 on t11.a = t2.a set t2.b = 666;

mysql> select * from t2;
+------+------+------+
| a    | b    | c    |
+------+------+------+
|    1 |  666 |  333 |
|    4 |  666 |  333 |
|    7 |  666 |  333 |
+------+------+------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)