Update Data In a Database

Update Data In a Database

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

Syntax

UPDATE table_name

SET column1=value, column2=value2,...

WHERE some_column=some_value

Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which record or records that should be updated. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be updated!

To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example

Earlier in the tutorial we created a table named "Persons". Here is how it looks:

FirstName LastName Age

Peter Griffin 35

Glenn Quagmire 33

The following example updates some data in the "Persons" table:

$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

if (!$con)

  {

  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

mysql_query("UPDATE Persons SET Age = '36'

WHERE FirstName = 'Peter' AND LastName = 'Griffin'");

mysql_close($con);

?>

After the update, the "Persons" table will look like this:

FirstName LastName Age

Peter Griffin 36

Glenn Quagmire 33