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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-21T13:54:45+00:00

I have a MySQL table named users that has the columns firstname and surname.

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I have a MySQL table named “users” that has the columns “firstname” and “surname”. There are a thousand or so rows in the table.

I have now added another column named “search” and I would like to populate it with the values of both the first name and the surname separated by a space. For example, if firstname = Bob and surname = smith, i would like to populate “search” with “Bob Smith”.

Can anyone advise on an update statement that selects these values and inserts them in to the new column?

Best regards, Ben.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You could simply use…

    UPDATE users SET search=TRIM(CONCAT(firstname, ' ', surname));

    As an explanation, CONCAT simply concatenates (merges) the supplied fields/values, and TRIM will remove any leading or trailing spaces, hence ensuring that there are no issues if a firstname/lastname or indeed both are missing. See the MySQL String Functions manual page for more information on these functions.

    However, I’d be tempted to call the new column “name” (or indeed “full_name”) rather than “search”, as this is, at best, a somewhat misleading field name.

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