The commands you use to add, change, or delete data are called data modification statements. These commands are:
insert – adds new rows to a table.
update – changes existing rows in a table.
writetext – adds or changes text, unitext, and image data without writing lengthy changes in the system’s transaction log.
delete – removes specific rows from a table.
truncate table – removes all rows from a table.
See the Reference Manual: Commands.
You can also add data to a table by transferring it from a file using the bulk copy utility program bcp. See the Utility Guide.
You can use insert, update, or delete to modify data in one table per statement. A Transact-SQL enhancement to these commands is that you can base modifications on data in other tables, and even other databases.
The data modification commands also work on views, with some restrictions. See Chapter 12, “Views: Limiting Access to Data.”
