Question

This is one annoying issue and I can’t figure out how to solve it. I’m Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

So I have two tables and I need to update both of them. They share a common key, say id. I want to update Table1 with some stuff and then update the Table2 rows which were respectively modified in Table1.

The issue is that I don’t quite know which rows were modified, because I’m picking them randomly with ORDER BY NEWID() so I probably cannot use a JOIN on Table2 in any way. I am trying to save the necessary details which were modified in my query for Table1 and pass them to Table2

This is what I’m trying to do

CREATE TABLE IDS (id int not null, secondid int)

SELECT [Table1].[id], [Table1].[secondid]
INTO IDS
FROM
(
UPDATE [Table1]
SET [secondid]=100
FROM [Table1] t
WHERE t.[id] IN 
    (SELECT TOP 100 PERCENT t.[id] FROM [Table1]
        WHERE (SOME_CONDITION)
        ORDER BY NEWID()
    ) 
)

UPDATE [Table2]
SET some_column=i.secondid
FROM [Table2] JOIN IDS i ON i.id = [Table2].[id]

But I get

Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘UPDATE’.

So the question is: how can I solve the syntax error or is it a better way to do this?

Note: the query enclosed between the parentheses of the first FROM worked well before this new requirement, so I doubt there’s a problem in there. Or maybe?

EDIT: Changing the second UPDATE as skk suggested still leads to the same error (on exactly the below line which contains UPDATE):

UPDATE [Table2]
SET some_column=i.secondid
FROM [Task] JOIN IDS i on i.[id]=[Table2].[id]
WHERE i.id=some_value

Answer 1

It’s complaining because you aren’t aliasing the derived table used in the first query, immediately preceding UPDATE [Table2].

If you add an alias, you’ll get a different error:

A nested INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or MERGE statement must have an OUTPUT clause.

Which leads back to @Adam Wenger’s answer.

---

Not sure I completely understand what you are trying to do, but the following sql will execute (after replacing SOME_CONDITION):

CREATE TABLE IDS (id int not null, secondid int)

UPDATE t SET [secondid] = 100
OUTPUT inserted.[id], inserted.[secondid] into [IDS]
FROM [Table1] t
WHERE t.[Id] IN
    (
        SELECT TOP 100 PERCENT t.[id] from [Table1]
        WHERE (SOME_CONDITION)
        ORDER BY NEWID()
    )

UPDATE [Table2]
SET some_column = i.secondid
FROM [Table2] JOIN IDS i ON i.id = [Table2].[id]