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Databases - Practical PostgreSQL
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Updating Several Columns

By separating assignment expressions in the SET clause with commas, you may execute updates to several columns of a table in a single statement. Example 4-55 illustrates updating both the name and address column of the publishers table for the Publisher with the id of 113.

Example 4-55. Using UPDATE on several columns

booktown=# 
UPDATE publishers

booktown-# 
       SET name = 'O\'Reilly & Associates',

booktown-# 
           address = 'O\'Reilly & Associates, Inc. '

booktown-# 
                  || '101 Morris St, Sebastopol, CA 95472'

booktown-# 
       WHERE id = 113;

UPDATE 1
booktown=# 
SELECT name, substr(address, 1, 40) || '...' AS short_address

booktown-# 
       FROM publishers

booktown-# 
       WHERE id = 113;

         name          |                short_address
-----------------------+---------------------------------------------
 O'Reilly & Associates | O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 101 Morris S...
(1 row)

The UPDATE statement in Example 4-55 shows both the name and address columns assigned through string constants. Notice that several backslashes within the string constants escape the input apostrophes. The SELECT statement following the update verifies that the desired information was updated.

Example 4-55 also demonstrates the use of the || text concatenation operator, and the substr() function, in practical usage. The address column is set with two string constants that are attached through the || operator in order to prevent the query from wrapping past the edge of the terminal. The substr() function is then used in the SELECT verification to prevent the output from wrapping. Each of these are used here to maintain readability of the output (of course, you would not want to display only a substring of the address field if you were interested in verifying its complete contents).

Databases - Practical PostgreSQL
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