A Level Computer Science OCR Test 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The SQL command used to modify existing records in a database is the UPDATE command. This command allows users to change the values of specified fields in one or more records in a table, based on certain conditions. For example, if you want to change the email address of a specific user in a user table, you can use the UPDATE command to set the new email address where the user ID matches.

The UPDATE command typically follows the format:

```sql

UPDATE table_name

SET column1 = value1, column2 = value2, ...

WHERE condition;

```

The presence of the WHERE clause is particularly important as it specifies which records should be updated, helping to prevent unintentional modifications to all records in the table.

In contrast, other options serve different purposes:

- The INSERT command is used to add new records to a table.

- The SELECT command retrieves data from a database without making any changes.

- The DELETE command removes records from a table rather than modifying them.

Hence, UPDATE is the correct command for modifying existing records.