Is there a way to include a query that is non updateable in an UPDATE query? [duplicate] - sql

Question

This question already has an answer here:
Access SQL Update One Table In Join Based on Value in Same Table
(1 answer)
Closed 10 years ago.
For the following query:
UPDATE tempSpring_ASN AS t
SET t.RECORD_TYPE = (
SELECT TOP 1 RECORD_TYPE
FROM (
SELECT "A" AS RECORD_TYPE
FROM TABLE5
UNION ALL
SELECT "B" AS RECORD_TYPE
FROM TABLE5
)
);
I'm getting, "Operation must use an updateable query." I don't understand. I'm not trying to update a union query. I'm just trying to update an otherwise updatable recordset with the output (single value) of a union query.
(The solution provided at Access SQL Update One Table In Join Based on Value in Same Table (which is also provided below) does not work for this situation, contrary to what is indicated on the top of this page.)

Answer 1

This question is a reference to a previous question, data and code examples posted here:
Access SQL Update One Table In Join Based on Value in Same Table
Hi AYS,
In Access, an Update query needs to be run on a table.
As a UNION query is a combination of multiple sets of records, the result set is no longer a table, and cannot be the object of an Update query as the records in the result set are no longer uniquely identified with any one particular table (even if they theoretically could be). Access is hard-coded to treat every UNION query as read-only, which makes sense when there are multiple underlying tables. There are a number of other conditions (such as a sub-query in the SELECT statement) that also trigger this condition.
Think if it this way: if you were not using TOP 1 and your UNION query returned multiple results, how would JET know which result to apply to the unique record in your table? As such, JET treats all such cases the same.
Unfortunately, this is the case even when all of the data is being derived from the same table. In this case, it is likely that the JET optimizer is simply not smart enough to realize that this is the case and re-phrase the query in a manner that does not use UNION.
In this case, you can still get what you want by re-stating your query in such a way that everything references your base table. For example, you can use the following as a SELECT query to get the PO_NUM value of the previous SHP_CUSTOM_5 record:
SELECT
t1.SHP_CUSTOM_5
, t1.PO_NUM
, t1.SHP_CUSTOM_5 -1 AS PREV_RECORD
, (SELECT
t2.PO_NUM
FROM
tempSpring_ASN As t2
WHERE
t2.SHP_CUSTOM_5 = (t1.SHP_CUSTOM_5 -1)
) AS PREV_PO
FROM
tempSpring_ASN AS t1
;
You can then phrase this as an Update query as follows in order to perform the "LIN" updates:
UPDATE
tempSpring_ASN AS t1
SET
t1.RECORD_TYPE = "LIN"
WHERE
t1.PO_NUM=
(
SELECT
t2.PO_NUM
FROM
tempSpring_ASN As t2
WHERE
t2.SHP_CUSTOM_5 = (t1.SHP_CUSTOM_5 -1)
)
;
This code was successful in the tests I ran with dummy data.
Regarding your "HDR" updates, your are really performing two separate updates.
1) If the PO_NUM matches the previous record's PO_NUM, set RECORD_TYPE to "LIN"
2) If it is the first record, set RECORD_TYPE to "HDR"
It is not clear to me why there would be a benefit to performing these actions within one query. I would recommend performing the HDR update using the "TOP 1" by SHP_CUSTOM_5 method you used in your original SELECT query example, as this will be a relatively simple UPDATE query. It is possible to use IIF() within an Update query, but I do not know what additional benefit you would gain from the additional time and complexity that would be required (it would most likely only be much less readable).
Best of luck!