Prepending a string to a column value in MySQL

Question

I need a SQL update statement for updating a particular field of all the rows with a string "test" join in the front of the existing value

For example, if the existing value is try it became testtry

Answer 1

That's a simple one

UPDATE YourTable SET YourColumn = CONCAT('prependedString', YourColumn);

Answer 2

You can use the CONCAT function to do that:

UPDATE tbl SET col=CONCAT('test',col);

If you want to get cleverer and only update columns which don't already have test prepended, try

UPDATE tbl SET col=CONCAT('test',col)
WHERE col NOT LIKE 'test%';

Answer 3

UPDATE tablename SET fieldname = CONCAT("test", fieldname) [WHERE ...]