Re: Using case expressions in update set clause

"Chris Velevitch" <chris(dot)velevitch(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:

> I just want to clarify that the following will always behave the way I
> think it's supposed to behave:-
>
> update tableA
> set date_field = case when date_field is null then some_date
> else date_field end;
>
> If the current value of date_field for the current record is null then
> set the date_field with some_date value otherwise keep the current
> value of date_field.

That's correct. In this case you could also do it with
set date_field = coalesce(date_field, some_date)

--
Gregory Stark
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com