How to add, delete, and change data in a database.

I recently went into a little bit of detail about databases and the SELECT statement. That is useful when you want to see what is in your database and do reporting, etc. But, this presumes that the data already exists. What if you have a new database with tables and things but have no data? What if you want to change some data? What if you want to remove data from your table(s)? Where did your mom learn that little trick with her tongue? These are all compelling questions.

There are utilities out there that can load data in bulk into a table but let us focus on the native SQL statements that achieve our desired results. INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and Tijuana, I'm guessing. Let's say we have a table called RECIPE and this table has these columns:
RECIPE_ID, NAME, TYPE, SOURCE, DATE_CREATED, DATE_MODIFIED
We want to add a record to this table. There are some intricacies here but let's keep it simple.
Your insert statement might look something like this:
INSERT INTO RECIPE VALUES (1, 'Chocolate Chip Cookies', 'Dessert', 'Grandma Betty', sysdate, sysdate);
NOTE: Sysdate is a mechanism to get the current date from the Oracle database. Many systems use it to keep track of when something happens by selecting it and storing it as we have done.
If you run this and commit it, you will have one record in your table. If you have auto commit turned on you are a maniac and an unsavory sort and I want nothing to do with you. Auto commit is a feature that, you guessed it, commits everything you run automatically. You might be thinking this saves you from forgetting to commit or it saves you a step. In my experience, it adds several steps when you have to unfuck whatever you just fucked up. Use with extreme caution.

Now, let's say you are on the phone with Grandma Betty and tell her that you added her cookie recipe and she says, "Well, you know, Dear, that is your Great Great Grandmother Ester's recipe." Oh Noes! What do? Calm the fuck down! I got this. You need to update your record.
UPDATE RECIPE SET SOURCE = 'Great Great Grandma Ester', DATE_MODIFIED = sysdate WHERE NAME = 'Chocolate Chip Cookies';
Commit;
You may actually use the RECIPE_ID in the where clause in place of the NAME but I wanted to keep it understandable. Hopefully this is understandable...

Now, let's say you try these cookies and they taste like Satan's taint. Great Great Grandma Ester went full retard and her recipe is awful and must be exterminated with extreme prejudice. No worries, Brah.
DELETE FROM RECIPE WHERE NAME = 'Chocolate Chip Cookies' AND SOURCE = 'Great Great Grandma Ester';
Commit that shit, yo.

With these tools, you can add, remove and modify data from your database as you desire. Now, I'm off to your mom's house. Toodles.