SQL Server UPDATE JOIN

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the SQL Server UPDATE JOIN statement to perform a cross-table update.

SQL Server UPDATE JOIN syntax

To query data from related tables, you often use the join clauses, either inner join or left join. In SQL Server, you can use these join clauses in the UPDATE statement to perform a cross-table update.

The following illustrates the syntax of the UPDATE JOIN clause:

UPDATE 
    t1
SET 
    t1.c1 = t2.c2,
    t1.c2 = expression,
    ...   
FROM 
    t1
    [INNER | LEFT] JOIN t2 ON join_predicate
WHERE 
    where_predicate;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this syntax:

• First, specify the name of the table (t1) that you want to update in the UPDATE clause.
• Next, specify the new value for each column of the updated table.
• Then, again specify the table from which you want to update in the FROM clause.
• After that, use either INNER JOIN or LEFT JOIN to join to another table (t2) using a join predicate specified after the ON keyword.
• Finally, add an optional WHERE clause to specify rows to be updated.

SQL Server UPDATE JOIN examples

Let’s take a look at some examples of using the UPDATE JOIN statement.

Setting up sample tables

First, create a new table named sales.targets to store the sales targets:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS sales.targets;

CREATE TABLE sales.targets
(
    target_id  INT	PRIMARY KEY, 
    percentage DECIMAL(4, 2) 
        NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
);

INSERT INTO 
    sales.targets(target_id, percentage)
VALUES
    (1,0.2),
    (2,0.3),
    (3,0.5),
    (4,0.6),
    (5,0.8);
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

If sales staffs achieved the target 1, they will get the ratio of 0.2 or 20% sales commission and so on.

Second, create another table named sales.commissions to store the sales commissions:

CREATE TABLE sales.commissions
(
    staff_id    INT PRIMARY KEY, 
    target_id   INT, 
    base_amount DECIMAL(10, 2) 
        NOT NULL DEFAULT 0, 
    commission  DECIMAL(10, 2) 
        NOT NULL DEFAULT 0, 
    FOREIGN KEY(target_id) 
        REFERENCES sales.targets(target_id), 
    FOREIGN KEY(staff_id) 
        REFERENCES sales.staffs(staff_id),
);

INSERT INTO 
    sales.commissions(staff_id, base_amount, target_id)
VALUES
    (1,100000,2),
    (2,120000,1),
    (3,80000,3),
    (4,900000,4),
    (5,950000,5);
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The sales.commissions table stores sales staff identification, target_id, base_amount, and commission. This table links to the sales.targets table via the target_id column.

Our goal is to calculate the commissions of all sales staffs based on their sales targets.

A) SQL Server UPDATE INNER JOIN example

The following statement uses the UPDATE INNER JOIN to calculate the sales commission for all sales staffs:

UPDATE
    sales.commissions
SET
    sales.commissions.commission = 
        c.base_amount * t.percentage
FROM 
    sales.commissions c
    INNER JOIN sales.targets t
        ON c.target_id = t.target_id;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the output:

(5 rows affected)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

If you query the sales.commissions table again, you will see that the values in the commission column are updated:

SELECT 
    *
FROM 
    sales.commissions;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

B) SQL Server UPDATE LEFT JOIN example

Suppose we have two more new sales staffs that have just joined and they don’t have any target yet:

INSERT INTO 
    sales.commissions(staff_id, base_amount, target_id)
VALUES
    (6,100000,NULL),
    (7,120000,NULL);
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

We assume that the commission for the new sales staffs is 0.1 or 10%, we can update the commission of all sales staffs using the UPDATE LEFT JOIN as follows:

UPDATE 
    sales.commissions
SET  
    sales.commissions.commission = 
        c.base_amount  * COALESCE(t.percentage,0.1)
FROM  
    sales.commissions c
    LEFT JOIN sales.targets t 
        ON c.target_id = t.target_id;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this example, we used COALESCE() to return 0.1 if the percentage is NULL.

Note that if you use the UPDATE INNER JOIN clause, just the five rows of the table whose targets are not NULL will be updated.

Let’s examine the data in the sales.commissions table:

SELECT 
  * 
FROM 
    sales.commissions;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

The result set is as follows:

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the SQL Server UPDATE JOIN statement to perform a cross-table update.