Re: using a correlated subquery in update

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Michael Fuhr wrote:
| On Fri, Dec 03, 2004 at 08:18:27AM -0500, Sean Davis wrote:
|
|
|>I have a table that has a column that has values like XM_29832.11 and I
|>want to do an update to take off the .11 part. I can do this for a
|>single value using:
|>
|>select substring('XM_29832.11' from '^([A-Z]*_[0-9*])');
|
|
| This query returns 'XM_2' -- is that what you want? Your description
| sounds like you'd want 'XM_29832'. Or is the query wrong because
| you typed it into the message instead of cutting and pasting it?
|
|
|>However, how can I write an update to use the above as a subquery to
|>update the whole column at once?
|
|
| UPDATE foo SET value = substring(value FROM '^([A-Z]*_[0-9]*)');
|
| I'd suggest making the update in a transaction so you can verify
| that the changes are correct before committing them.

It sounds like he just wants to truncate the '.11' from the end of a string.

BEGIN;

UPDATE foo
SET xm_value = substring(xm_value FOR char_length(xm_value) - 3)
WHERE xm_value LIKE '%.11';

Then do some SELECTs to confirm that you've got what you need and if so,

COMMIT;

- --
Andrew Hammond 416-673-4138 ahammond(at)ca(dot)afilias(dot)info
Database Administrator, Afilias Canada Corp.
CB83 2838 4B67 D40F D086 3568 81FC E7E5 27AF 4A9A
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