SQL Server 2008 - IF NOT EXISTS INSERT ELSE UPDATE

Question

I apologize, but this is kind of a two part question.

I\'m extremely new to SQL and am trying to develop a time clock application for the small office that I work in

Answer 1

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM Clock
WHERE clockDate = '08/10/2012') AND userName = 'test')

Has an extra parenthesis. I think it's fine if you remove it:

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM Clock WHERE
clockDate = '08/10/2012' AND userName = 'test')

Also, GETDATE() will put the current date in the column, though if you don't want the time you'll have to play a little. I think CONVERT(varchar(8), GETDATE(), 112) would give you just the date (not time) portion.

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM Clock WHERE
clockDate = CONVERT(varchar(8), GETDATE(), 112)
AND userName = 'test')

should probably do it.

PS: use a merge statement :)

Answer 2

At first glance your original attempt seems pretty close. I'm assuming that clockDate is a DateTime fields so try this:

IF (NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM Clock WHERE cast(clockDate as date) = '08/10/2012') 
    AND userName = 'test') 
BEGIN 
    INSERT INTO Clock(clockDate, userName, breakOut) 
    VALUES(GetDate(), 'test', GetDate()) 
END 
ELSE 
BEGIN 
    UPDATE Clock 
    SET breakOut = GetDate()
    WHERE Cast(clockDate AS Date) = '08/10/2012' AND userName = 'test'
END 

Note that getdate gives you the current date. If you are trying to compare to a date (without the time) you need to cast or the time element will cause the compare to fail.

---

If clockDate is NOT datetime field (just date), then the SQL engine will do it for you - no need to cast on a set/insert statement.

IF (NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM Clock WHERE clockDate = '08/10/2012') 
    AND userName = 'test') 
BEGIN 
    INSERT INTO Clock(clockDate, userName, breakOut) 
    VALUES(GetDate(), 'test', GetDate()) 
END 
ELSE 
BEGIN 
    UPDATE Clock 
    SET breakOut = GetDate()
    WHERE clockDate = '08/10/2012' AND userName = 'test'
END 

As others have pointed out, the merge statement is another way to tackle this same logic. However, in some cases, especially with large data sets, the merge statement can be prohibitively slow, causing a lot of tran log activity. So knowing how to logic it out as shown above is still a valid technique.

Answer 3

As others have suggested that you should look into MERGE statement but nobody provided a solution using it I'm adding my own answer with this particular TSQL construct. I bet you'll like it.

Important note

Your code has a typo in your if statement in not exists(select...) part. Inner select statement has only one where condition while UserName condition is excluded from the not exists due to invalid brace completion. In any case you cave too many closing braces.

I assume this based on the fact that you're using two where conditions in update statement later on in your code.

Let's continue to my answer...

SQL Server 2008+ support MERGE statement

MERGE statement is a beautiful TSQL gem very well suited for "insert or update" situations. In your case it would look similar to the following code. Take into consideration that I'm declaring variables what are likely stored procedure parameters (I suspect).

declare @clockDate date = '08/10/2012';
declare @userName = 'test';

merge Clock as target
using (select @clockDate, @userName) as source (ClockDate, UserName)
on (target.ClockDate = source.ClockDate and target.UserName = source.UserName)
when matched then
    update
    set BreakOut = getdate()
when not matched then
    insert (ClockDate, UserName, BreakOut)
    values (getdate(), source.UserName, getdate());

Answer 4

You need to replace it as WHERE clockDate = { fn CURRENT_DATE() } AND userName = 'test'. Please remove extra ")" from { fn CURRENT_DATE() })