Question

I’m more familiar with Oracle so the syntax of SQL Server 2008 is throwing me. I’m trying to perform an update of multiple rows with a query equivalent to

update Table
set type = 'typeA' 
where id in 
(select id from Table where type='typeB')

I am receiving the following error:

Msg 512, Level 16, State 1, Procedure Assigned_To_Email, Line 19
Subquery returned more than 1 value. This is not permitted when the subquery follows =, !=, <, <= , >, >= or when the subquery is used as an expression.

Searching for a TSQL specific solution I tried the following syntax but received the same error.

update a
set type = 'typeA' 
from Table a
join Table b
on a.id = b.id
where b.type='typeB'

I’ve read that an update with the subquery should work, but it’s not been my experience. Is there something more basic missing here?
Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Your update statement does not have to use a sub-query or a join.

update Table
set type = 'typeA' 
where type = 'typeB'