Question

I have a table, called “report”, which contains report IDs and their respective extension codes. Currently, as an example, the only extension for each ID is ‘TXT’. I am trying to insert a new extension (‘RTF’) into each existing report ID. Here is my code:

merge into report a
      using (select x.rpt_id as value1, 'RTF' as value2
             from report x
             where x.extension <> 'RTF') b
      on (a.rpt_id = b.value1)
when not matched then
      insert values (b.value1, b.value2);

I get no errors, but nothing gets inserted…

Answer 1

It would be helpful to post a sample of the data before you run your statement (just a sample, of course) and the desired data after you’ve run your statement.

It sounds like you are looking for something like

INSERT INTO report( rpt_id, extension )
  SELECT rpt_id, 'RTF'
    FROM report
   WHERE extension != 'RTF'

If the primary key is actually a composite constraint on the combination of rpt_id and extension, and your goal is to take your table of N reports each with an extension of TXT and create N new rows with the same rpt_id and an extension of `RTF’, this will work.

SQL> create table report(
  2    rpt_id number,
  3    extension varchar2(3),
  4    constraint extension_pk primary key( rpt_id, extension )
  5  );

Table created.

SQL> insert into report values( 1, 'TXT' );

1 row created.

SQL> insert into report values( 2, 'TXT' );

1 row created.

SQL> insert into report values( 3, 'TXT' );

1 row created.

SQL> insert into report values( 4, 'TXT' );

1 row created.

SQL> insert into report values( 5, 'TXT' );

1 row created.

SQL> select * from report;

    RPT_ID EXT
---------- ---
         1 TXT
         2 TXT
         3 TXT
         4 TXT
         5 TXT

SQL> insert into report( rpt_id, extension )
  2    select rpt_id, 'RTF'
  3      from report
  4     where extension != 'RTF';

5 rows created.

SQL> select * from report;

    RPT_ID EXT
---------- ---
         1 RTF
         1 TXT
         2 RTF
         2 TXT
         3 RTF
         3 TXT
         4 RTF
         4 TXT
         5 RTF
         5 TXT

10 rows selected.

Based on the error you are getting, it certainly appears that the primary key is not defined on the combination of rpt_id and extension.