Question

I have inherited a very old database that needs some data to be updated. Each row ha a column with a UniqueID that looks like C0042-45-39612. The last 3 numbers of the code are the category Id (in this case 612).

I need to do an update that targets only certain categories and I’m using this SQL statement

UPDATE WebbikesProducts SET Price = Price * 1.05 WHERE Convert( Integer, SubString( UniqueID, 3, 3 )) = 125 

The obvious problem here is what if the unique code doesn’t have 3 numbers at the end? Well that’s exactly the problem I have as not all the items are categorized or have unique numbers like C0049-307-1CHROME.

I don’t have access to the DB (I’m calling this from an asp page) so I’d prefer not to have to create a stored procedure. The DB is SQL 2000.

Is there any way to ignore the rows with errors and carry on updating the other rows?

Answer 1

Try this:

UPDATE WebbikesProducts  SET Price = Price * 1.05  WHERE ISNUMERIC(SubString( UniqueID, 3, 3 )) = 1 AND Convert( Integer, SubString( UniqueID, 3, 3 )) = 125 

or even more simple:

UPDATE WebbikesProducts  SET Price = Price * 1.05  WHERE SubString( UniqueID, 3, 3 ) = '125' 

-Edo