Question

What is wrong with the statement below? I keep getting the following error message…. Server: Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 4 Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘THEN’.

update oildatasetstatus set oildatasetstatusid =      case      WHEN 5 THEN 16             WHEN 6 THEN 17             WHEN 7 THEN 18             WHEN 8 THEN 18             WHEN 9 THEN 18             WHEN 10 THEN 19             WHEN 11 THEN 20         End where oildatasetlabstatusid in  (                 select oildatasetstatusid                 from OilDataSetStatus                 inner join OilDataSet on OilDataSet.OilDataSetID =                      OilDataSetStatus.OilDataSetID                 where SamplePointID in                  (                                 select SamplePointID                                  from SamplePoint                                 where CustomerSiteID in                                 (                                                 select CustomerSiteID                                                 from CustomerSite                                                 where CustomerID = 2                                 )                 ) ) 

Answer 1

The way you have your statement coded now will work (once you add the column reference to the case statement, as mentioned by other posts), however, to let the rest of your syntax go uncommented on would be a disservice to others in your situation.

While you may only need to run this query once, I and others have run into similar situations where an Update to multiple rows also relies on data 3 or 4 tables away from our source and has to be run many times (like in a report).

By collapsing your sub selects into a single select statement and saving the results of that into a #Temp table or a @Table variable, you only have to do that lookup once, then select from the result set for your update.

Here is a sample using a @table variable:

declare @OilStatus table (oilDatasetStatusID int) insert into @OilStatus     select odss.oildatasetstatusid     from OildataSetStatus odss     join oilDataSet ods on ods.OilDataSetID = odss.OilDataSetID     join SamplePoint sp on sp.SamplePointID = odss.SamplePointID     join CustomerSite cs on cs.CustomerSiteID = sp.CustomerSiteID     where cs.CustomerID = 2  update oildatasetstatus set oildatasetstatusid =      case oildatasetstatusid         WHEN 5 THEN 16                 WHEN 6 THEN 17                 WHEN 7 THEN 18                 WHEN 8 THEN 18                 WHEN 9 THEN 18                 WHEN 10 THEN 19                 WHEN 11 THEN 20     end where oildatasetlabstatusid in ( select oilDatasetStatusID from @OilStatus ) 

Since I do not have your exact schema, there may be errors when trying to implement the sample above but I think you will get the idea.

Also, whenever multiple tables are used in a single statement try to preface every column name with an alias or the full table name. It helps keep both the sql engine and the people reading your code from getting lost.