Data modification statements

The statements you use to add, change, or delete data are called data modification statements which are a subset of the data manipulation language (DML) statements part of ANSI SQL. The main DML statements are:

  • INSERT statement   Adds new rows to a table or view. See INSERT statement.

  • UPDATE statement   The UPDATE statement changes rows in a set of tables or views. See UPDATE statement.

  • DELETE statement   The DELETE statement removes rows from a set of tables or views. DELETE statement.

  • MERGE statement   The MERGE statement adds, changes, and removes specific rows from a table or view. See MERGE statement.

In addition to the statements above, the LOAD TABLE and TRUNCATE TABLE statements are especially useful for bulk loading and deleting of data.


Permissions for data modification
Transactions and data modification
Making changes permanent
Canceling changes
Transactions and data recovery
Referential integrity