Question

Im trying to update a field by appending data to it.
if it contains the data already i wont update it otherwise I will.

if it already contains data i want it to append a comma and space followed by the word. e.g.

update myTable 
set  Prefixes = convert(nvarchar(max),Prefixes) + ', abc' 
where MyCol='xyz' and Prefixes not like '%abc%'

im trying to get this to work so that if the prefixes column is empty initially it only includes the word ‘abc’

and not ‘, abc’

How can i do this?

Answer 1

Sounds like you need a CASE:

update myTable 
set  Prefixes = 
           case 
               when Prefixes is null or Prefixes = ''
               then 'abc'
               else convert(nvarchar(max),Prefixes) + ', abc' 
            end
where MyCol='xyz' and (Prefixes not like '%abc%' or Prefixes is null)

See SQL Fiddle with Demo