How do I make a query for if value exists in row add a value to another field? - sql

Question

I have a database on access and I want to add a value to a column at the end of each row based on which hospital they are in. This is a separate value. For example - the hospital called "St. James Hospital" has the id of "3" in a separate field. How do I do this using a query rather than manually going through a whole database?
example here

Answer 1

Not the best solution, but you can do something like this:
create table new_table as
select id, case when hospital="St. James Hospital" then 3 else null
from old_table
Or, the better option would be to create a table with the columns hospital_name and hospital_id. You can then create a foreign key relationship that will create the mapping for you, and enforce data integrity. A join across the two tables will produce what you want.
Read about this here:
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/databases/sql-for-beginners-part-3-database-relationships/

Answer 2

The answer to your question is a JOIN+UPDATE. I am fairly sure if you looked up you would find the below link.
Access DB update one table with value from another

Answer 3

You could do this:
update yourTable
set yourFinalColumnWhateverItsNameIs = {your desired value}
where someColumn = 3
Every row in the table that has a 3 in the someColumn column will then have that final column set to your desired value.
If this isn't what you want, please make your question clearer. Are you trying to put the name of the hospital into this table? If so, that is not a good idea and there are better ways to accomplish that.
Furthermore, if every row with a certain value (3) gets this value, you could simply add it to the other (i.e. Hospitals) table. No need to repeat it everywhere in the table that points back to the Hospitals table.
P.S. Here's an example of what I meant:
Let's say you have two tables
HOSPITALS
id
name
city
state
BIRTHS
id
hospitalid
babysname
gender
mothersname
fathername
You could get a baby's city of birth without having to include the City column in the Births table, simply by joining the tables on hospitals.id = births.hospitalid.

Answer 4

After examining your ACCDB file, I suggest you consider setting up the tables differently.
Table Health_Professionals:
ID First Name Second Name Position hospital_id
1 John Doe PI 2
2 Joe Smith Co-PI 1
3 Sarah Johnson Nurse 3
Table Hospitals:
hospital_id Hospital
1 Beaumont
2 St James
3 Letterkenny Hosptial
A key point is to avoid storing both the hospital ID and name in the Health_Professionals table. Store only the ID. When you need to see the name, use the hospital ID to join with the Hospitals table and get the name from there.
A useful side effect of this design is that if anyone ever misspells a hospital name, eg "Hosptial", you need correct that error in only one place. Same holds true whenever a hospital is intentionally renamed.
Based on those tables, the query below returns this result set.
ID Second Name First Name Position hospital_id Hospital
1 Doe John PI 2 St James
3 Johnson Sarah Nurse 3 Letterkenny Hosptial
2 Smith Joe Co-PI 1 Beaumont
SELECT
hp.ID,
hp.[Second Name],
hp.[First Name],
hp.Position,
hp.hospital_id,
h.Hospital
FROM
Health_Professionals AS hp
INNER JOIN Hospitals AS h
ON hp.hospital_id = h.hospital_id
ORDER BY
hp.[Second Name],
hp.[First Name];