SQL for Data Manipulation

Once a table is created with CREATE TABLE, only its structure exists — the table itself holds no data. To populate a table with records, we use the INSERT statement. Existing records can later be modified with UPDATE, or removed with DELETE. Together, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are the SQL statements that make up the Data Manipulation Language (DML).

In short, data manipulation on a database means one of three things: inserting new data, removing existing data, or modifying data that is already there. …