Question

I have two tables that I want to use in my query, tblEmployee and tblEmpPerformance

The requirement is:

Using tblEmployee.EmpID, tblEmployee.ManagerID, go thru tblEmpPerformance and look at tblEmpPerformance.SalaryRaise and tblEmpPerformance.CommissionRaise, and update tblEmployee accordingly.

Only one of these two fields will have a non-zero value for every record in tblEmpPerformance

if tblEmployee.EmpID = tblEmpPerformance.EmpID then 
If tblEmpPerformance.Salary > 0 then
    update tblEmployee
    Set CompensationType = 'Salary'
    Where tblEmployee.EmpID = tblEmpPerformance.EmpID 
    AND tblEmployee.ManagerID = tblEmpPerformance.ManagerID   

    update tblEmployee
    Set SalaryRaise = tblEmpPerformance.SalaryRaise
    Where tblEmployee.EmpID = tblEmpPerformance.EmpID 
    AND tblEmployee.ManagerID = tblEmpPerformance.ManagerID 

If tblEmpPerformance.Commission > 0 then
    update tblEmployee
    Set CompensationType = 'Commission'
    Where tblEmployee.EmpID = tblEmpPerformance.EmpID 
    AND tblEmployee.ManagerID = tblEmpPerformance.ManagerID 

    update tblEmployee
    Set CommissionRaise = tblEmpPerformance.CommissionRaise
    Where tblEmployee.EmpID = tblEmpPerformance.EmpID 
    AND tblEmployee.ManagerID = tblEmpPerformance.ManagerID 

If no matching EmpID‘s found, then look in tblContractorPerformance

if tblEmployee.EmpID = tblContractorPerformance.EmpID then 
    If tblContractorPerformance.Salary > 0 then
    update tblEmployee
    Set CompensationType = 'Salary'
    Where tblEmployee.EmpID = tblContractorPerformance.EmpID 
    AND tblEmployee.ManagerID = tblContractorPerformance.ManagerID 
    ....
    ....
    ....
    ....

Next tblEmployee.EmpID

Update:
DOH!!..
What would be the best way to write this SQL query. Stored Proc or cursor?
Any suggesstion on how to design the query would be a great help as well

Answer 1

Please avoid cursors. Think set-based in dealing with your data. So execute on your first set of data, where tblEmpPerformance.Salary > 0. Do your updates, then do the second operation on the next set of data where tblEmpPerformance.Commission > 0. Lastly, update all the data where the tblContractorPerformance.Salary > 0.

Put these operations in a stored procedure and I’m confident you’ll see better performance than the equivalent using cursors.