Question

I have a field created titled LeadInventor,

what I want SQL Server to do is insert yes into the LeadInventor field if the names from the first inventor table match the inventor table. The first inventor table has the names as one field, the inventor table has them separated first and last

this is the coding I have so far, which I know is wrong.

if inventor.InventorFirst + ' ' +inventor.InventorLast  = firstinventor.firstinventorname
insert into Inventor(LeadInventor) values ('Yes')
else insert into Inventor(leadinventor) values ('No');

What I would like to know is how do I fix it, or re-write it so that it will do what I ask it to?

Answer 1

Something like this?

UPDATE i
SET LeadInventor = 
    CASE 
        WHEN fi.FirstInventorName IS NULL THEN 'No' 
        ELSE 'Yes' 
    END
FROM Inventor i
    LEFT JOIN FirstInventor fi
    ON i.InventorFirst + ' ' + i.InventorLast = fi.FirstInventorName