Update MSAccess table from another Access table using SQL

Question

I am trying to update table Original with the values in Final. I'm a newb to SQL, but I have been at this for two hours trying to change various samples to fit my needs. I am using Access 2007.

UPDATE 
  Original o
SET 
  o.[Assest Description] = (
    SELECT f.[Assest Description] FROM Original o, Final f 
    WHERE o.[Assest No] = f.[Assest No])
WHERE o.[Assest No] = Final.[Asset No]

Solution 1

I'm not sure your select statement returns only one row. If you want to perform an update on a table using a select statement for assignment, you must be sure that it returns only one row.

Besides that, you may consider the next solution:

update 
   Original as o
   inner join Final as f on o.[Assest No] = f.[Assest No]
set
   o.[Assest Description] = f.[Assest Description]

Notice that this will only work correctly if both [Assest no] is a unique key in both Original and Final tables, and they are properly related.

Solution 2

Try this

UPDATE o 
SET o.[Assest Description] =  f.[Assest Description]
FROM Original o, Final f WHERE o.[Assest No] = f.[Assest No]

Comments

[Barranka]

Certainly cmsjr's answer is simpler

[cmsjr]

I'm not totally sure my answer will work with the Access engine, so your answer may be the better one.

[Hamptonite]

This totally worked and saved my hind quarters. I've tried cmsjr answer, and I thought it was that easy, but it isn't. Thank you both. I'm bad with SQL, but the join statements make me zone out.

[Barranka]

@user1721535 I'm glad to know that this helped you. Just one more little (and very personal) opinion: MS Access SQL is a very customized SQL dialect (I call it "Bill's SQL")... It's a good place to learn the basics, but it has some tricks that can be confusing

[Shane Kenyon]

Based on this I made the following query in Access 2013 and it worked great: UPDATE Components INNER JOIN Analysis ON Components.Component = Analysis.Component SETComponents.BusinessUnit = Analysis.[Test Area], Components.Impact = Analysis.Impact, Components.InScope = SWITCH (Analysis.[Test Area] = "NA", False, True, True), Components.InUse = SWITCH (Analysis.[Test Area] = "Not Used", False, True, True)

[John M]

Just as a note -> this query syntax doesn't work for MS Access 2007

[HansUp]

It should throw error #3075, "Syntax error (missing operator) in query expression ...". A valid Access SQL UPDATE does not include the FROM keyword, and you must fully define the data source(s) before SET.

[ThisClark]

This doesn't work for Access 2013 either, same error as pointed out by @HansUp