SQL update from one Table to another based on a ID match

Question

I have a database with account numbers and card numbers. I match these to a file to update any card numbers to the account number, so

Answer 1

For SQL Server 2008 + Using MERGE rather than the proprietary UPDATE ... FROM syntax has some appeal.

As well as being standard SQL and thus more portable it also will raise an error in the event of there being multiple joined rows on the source side (and thus multiple possible different values to use in the update) rather than having the final result be undeterministic.

MERGE INTO Sales_Import
   USING RetrieveAccountNumber
      ON Sales_Import.LeadID = RetrieveAccountNumber.LeadID
WHEN MATCHED THEN
   UPDATE 
      SET AccountNumber = RetrieveAccountNumber.AccountNumber;

Unfortunately the choice of which to use may not come down purely to preferred style however. The implementation of MERGE in SQL Server has been afflicted with various bugs. Aaron Bertrand has compiled a list of the reported ones here.