T-SQL cursor and update - sql

Question

I use a cursor to iterate through quite a big table. For each row I check if value from one column exists in other.
If the value exists, I would like to increase value column in that other table.
If not, I would like to insert there new row with value set to 1.
I check "if exists" by:
IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM otherTabe WHERE... > 1)
BEGIN
...
END
ELSE
BEGIN
...
END
I don't know how to get that row which was found and update value. I don't want to make another select.
How can I do this efficiently?
I assume that the method of checking described above isn't good for this case.

Answer 1

Depending on the size of your data and the actual condition, you have two basic approaches:
1) use MERGE
MERGE TOP (...) INTO table1
USING table2 ON table1.column = table2.column
WHEN MATCHED
THEN UPDATE SET table1.counter += 1
WHEN NOT MATCHED SOURCE
THEN INSERT (...) VALUES (...);
the TOP is needed because when you're doing a huge update like this (you mention the table is 'big', big is relative, but lets assume truly big, +100MM rows) you have to batch the updates, otherwise you'll overwhelm the transaction log with one single gigantic transaction.
2) use a cursor, as you are trying. Your original question can be easily solved, simply always update and then check the count of rows updated:
UPDATE table
SET column += 1
WHERE ...;
IF ##ROW_COUNT = 0
BEGIN
-- no match, insert new value
INSERT INTO (...) VALUES (...);
END
Note that this approach is dangerous though because of race conditions: there is nothing to prevent another thread from inserting the value concurrently, so you may end up with either duplicates or a constraint violation error (preferably the latter...).

Answer 2

This is just psuedo code because I have no idea of your table structure but I think you will understand... basically Update the columns you want then Insert the columns you need. A Cursor operation sounds unnecessary.
Update OtherTable
Set ColumnToIncrease = ColumnToIncrease + 1
FROM CurrentTable Where ColumnToCheckValue is not null
Insert Into OtherTable (ColumnToIncrease, Field1, Field2,...)
SELECT
1,
?
?
FROM CurrentTable Where ColumnToCheckValue is not null

Answer 3

Without a sample, I think this is the best I can do. Bottom line: you don't need a cursor. UPDATE where a match exists (INNER JOIN) and INSERT where one does not.
UPDATE otherTable
SET IncrementingColumn = IncrementingColumn + 1
FROM thisTable INNER JOIN otherTable ON thisTable.ID = otherTable.ID
INSERT INTO otherTable
(
ID
, IncrementingColumn
)
SELECT ID, 1
FROM thisTable
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM otherTable
WHERE thisTable.ID = otherTable.ID)

Answer 4

I think you'd be better off using a view for this -- then it's always up to date, no risk of mistakenly double/triple/etc counting:
CREATE VIEW vw_value_count AS
SELECT st.value,
COUNT(*) AS numValue
FROM SOME_TABLE st
GROUP BY st.value
But if you still want to use the INSERT/UPDATE approach:
IF EXISTS(SELECT NULL
FROM SOMETABLE WHERE ... > 1)
BEGIN
UPDATE TABLE
SET count = count + 1
WHERE value = #value
END
ELSE
BEGIN
INSERT INTO TABLE
(value, count)
VALUES
(#value, 1)
END

Answer 5

What about Update statement with inner join to perform +1, and Insert selected rows that do not exist in the first table.
Provide the tables schema and the columns you want to check and update so I can help.
Regards.