1432
votes

I need to update this table in SQL Server with data from its 'parent' table, see below:

Table: sale

id (int)
udid (int)
assid (int)

Table: ud

id  (int)
assid  (int)

sale.assid contains the correct value to update ud.assid.

What query will do this? I'm thinking of a join but I'm not sure if it's possible.

16
some relations between the tables? How can one know which record from sale corresponds to which record from ud? Is it based on id as primary key in both tables?Cătălin Pitiș
How can you update UD? It only has the assid and it's own ID. Could you give an example in terms of actual values that exist, and the records you would like changed or added as a result of the script?Bernhard Hofmann

16 Answers

2577
votes

Syntax strictly depends on which SQL DBMS you're using. Here are some ways to do it in ANSI/ISO (aka should work on any SQL DBMS), MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle. Be advised that my suggested ANSI/ISO method will typically be much slower than the other two methods, but if you're using a SQL DBMS other than MySQL, SQL Server, or Oracle, then it may be the only way to go (e.g. if your SQL DBMS doesn't support MERGE):

ANSI/ISO:

update ud 
     set assid = (
          select sale.assid 
          from sale 
          where sale.udid = ud.id
     )
 where exists (
      select * 
      from sale 
      where sale.udid = ud.id
 );

MySQL:

update ud u
inner join sale s on
    u.id = s.udid
set u.assid = s.assid

SQL Server:

update u
set u.assid = s.assid
from ud u
    inner join sale s on
        u.id = s.udid

PostgreSQL:

update ud
  set assid = s.assid
from sale s 
where ud.id = s.udid;

Note that the target table must not be repeated in the FROM clause for Postgres.

Oracle:

update
    (select
        u.assid as new_assid,
        s.assid as old_assid
    from ud u
        inner join sale s on
            u.id = s.udid) up
set up.new_assid = up.old_assid

SQLite:

update ud 
     set assid = (
          select sale.assid 
          from sale 
          where sale.udid = ud.id
     )
 where RowID in (
      select RowID 
      from ud 
      where sale.udid = ud.id
 );
150
votes

This should work in SQL Server:

update ud 
set assid = sale.assid
from sale
where sale.udid = id
103
votes

postgres

UPDATE table1
SET    COLUMN = value
FROM   table2,
       table3
WHERE  table1.column_id = table2.id
       AND table1.column_id = table3.id
       AND table1.COLUMN = value
       AND table2.COLUMN = value
       AND table3.COLUMN = value 
51
votes

A standard SQL approach would be

UPDATE ud
SET assid = (SELECT assid FROM sale s WHERE ud.id=s.id)

On SQL Server you can use a join

UPDATE ud
SET assid = s.assid
FROM ud u
JOIN sale s ON u.id=s.id
39
votes

PostgreSQL:

CREATE TABLE ud (id integer, assid integer);
CREATE TABLE sales (id integer, udid integer, assid integer);

UPDATE ud
SET assid = sales.assid
FROM sales
WHERE sales.id = ud.id;
26
votes

Simplified update query using JOIN-ing multiple tables.

   UPDATE
        first_table ft
        JOIN second_table st ON st.some_id = ft.some_id
        JOIN third_table tt  ON tt.some_id = st.some_id
        .....
    SET
        ft.some_column = some_value
    WHERE ft.some_column = 123456 AND st.some_column = 123456

Note - first_table, second_table, third_table and some_column like 123456 are demo table names, column names and ids. Replace them with the valid names.

17
votes

Another example why SQL isn't really portable.

For MySQL it would be:

update ud, sale
set ud.assid = sale.assid
where sale.udid = ud.id;

For more info read multiple table update: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/update.html

UPDATE [LOW_PRIORITY] [IGNORE] table_references
    SET col_name1={expr1|DEFAULT} [, col_name2={expr2|DEFAULT}] ...
    [WHERE where_condition]
10
votes

Teradata Aster offers another interesting way how to achieve the goal:

MERGE INTO ud --what trable should be updated
USING sale -- from what table/relation update info should be taken
ON ud.id = sale.udid --join condition
WHEN MATCHED THEN 
    UPDATE SET ud.assid = sale.assid; -- how to update
8
votes

I was thinking the SQL-Server one in the top post would work for Sybase since they are both T-SQL but unfortunately not.

For Sybase I found the update needs to be on the table itself not the alias:

update ud
set u.assid = s.assid
from ud u
    inner join sale s on
        u.id = s.udid
8
votes

The following statement with FROM keyword is used to update multiple rows with a join

UPDATE users 
set users.DivisionId=divisions.DivisionId
from divisions join users on divisions.Name=users.Division
8
votes

MySQL

You'll get the best performance if you forget the where clause and place all conditions in the ON expression.

I think this is because the query first has to join the tables then runs the where clause on that, so if you can reduce what is required to join then that's the fasted way to get the results/do the udpate.

Example

Scenario

You have a table of users. They can log in using their username or email or account_number. These accounts can be active (1) or inactive (0). This table has 50000 rows

You then have a table of users to disable at one go because you find out they've all done something bad. This table however, has one column with usernames, emails and account numbers mixed. It also has a "has_run" indicator which needs to be set to 1 (true) when it has been run

Query

UPDATE users User
    INNER JOIN
        blacklist_users BlacklistUser
        ON
        (
            User.username = BlacklistUser.account_ref
            OR
            User.email = BlacklistedUser.account_ref
            OR
            User.phone_number = BlacklistUser.account_ref
            AND
            User.is_active = 1
            AND
            BlacklistUser.has_run = 0
        )
    SET
        User.is_active = 0,
        BlacklistUser.has_run = 1;

Reasoning

If we had to join on just the OR conditions it would essentially need to check each row 4 times to see if it should join, and potentially return a lot more rows. However, by giving it more conditions it can "skip" a lot of rows if they don't meet all the conditions when joining.

Bonus

It's more readable. All the conditions are in one place and the rows to update are in one place

5
votes

The simplest way is to use the Common Table Expression (CTE) introduced in SQL 2005

with cte as
(select u.assid col1 ,s.assid col2 from ud u inner join sale s on u.id = s.udid)
update cte set col1=col2
4
votes

And in MS ACCESS:

UPDATE ud 
INNER JOIN sale ON ud.id = sale.udid
SET ud.assid = sale.assid;
4
votes

Try this one, I think this will works for you

update ud

set ud.assid = sale.assid

from ud 

Inner join sale on ud.id = sale.udid

where sale.udid is not null
3
votes
UPDATE tblAppraisalBasicData
SET tblAppraisalBasicData.ISCbo=1
FROM tblAppraisalBasicData SI INNER JOIN  aaa_test RAN ON SI.EmpID = RAN.ID
3
votes

For SQLite use the RowID property to make the update:

update Table set column = 'NewValue'
where RowID = 
(select t1.RowID from Table t1
join Table2 t2 on t1.JoinField = t2.JoinField
where t2.SelectValue = 'FooMyBarPlease');