I need to update a field on a table to be true only if a matching row exists in another table, for all the rows where the column is currently null in the main table.
This is a description of what I want to achieve:
UPDATE [LenqReloaded].[dbo].[Enquiry] A
SET [ResponseLetterSent] = 1
WHERE [ResponseLetterSent] IS NULL
AND EXISTS
(
SELECT * FROM [LenqReloaded].[dbo].[Attachment] B
WHERE A.[EnquiryID] = B.[EnquiryID]
)
This isn't syntactically correct.
I can't code it via an IF EXISTS... statement because I don't have the [EnquiryID] without reading the data from the table.
How should I format my UPDATE statement?
You weren't far off...
UPDATE A
SET A.[ResponseLetterSent] = 1
FROM [LenqReloaded].[dbo].[Enquiry] A
WHERE A.[ResponseLetterSent] IS NULL
AND EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM [LenqReloaded].[dbo].[Attachment] B WHERE A.[EnquiryID] = B.[EnquiryID] )
You need to use a join in your update:
UPDATE [LenqReloaded].[dbo].[Enquiry] SET [ResponseLetterSent] = 1
FROM [LenqReloaded].[dbo].[Enquiry] A
join [LenqReloaded].[dbo].[Attachment] B on A.[EnquiryID] = B.[EnquiryID]
WHERE A.[ResponseLetterSent] IS NULL
This seems counterintuitive, but you need to establish a table alias in a From clause but use that alias in the Update Clause...
Update E Set
ResponseLetterSent = 1
From LenqReloaded.dbo.Enquiry E
Where ResponseLetterSent Is Null
And Exists (Select * From LenqReloaded.dbo.Attachment
Where EnquiryID = E.EnquiryID)
The thing you are missing is the 'from' clause, which is a t-sql extension - it is the only way to assign an alias to the updated table
update [lenqreloaded].[dbo].[enquiry]
set [responselettersent] = 1
from [lenqreloaded].[dbo].[enquiry] a
where [responselettersent] is null
and exists (
select *
from [lenqreloaded].[dbo].[attachment] b
where a.[enquiryid] = b.[enquiryid]
)