Question

Differentiate between the following statement:

ALTER and UPDATE

Answer 1

Alter

• ALTER command is Data Definition Language (DDL).
• ALTER command will perform the action on the structure level and not on the data level.
• ALTER Command is used to add, delete, and modify the attributes of the relations (tables) in the database.

Update

• UPDATE Command is a Data Manipulation Language (DML).
• UPDATE command will perform on the data level.
• UPDATE Command is used to update existing records in a database.