How to update and order by using ms sql

Question

Ideally I want to do this:

UPDATE TOP (10) messages SET status=10 WHERE status=0 ORDER BY priority DESC;

In English: I want to get the top

Answer 1

As stated in comments below, you can use also the SET ROWCOUNT clause, but just for SQL Server 2014 and older.

SET ROWCOUNT 10

UPDATE messages
SET status = 10 
WHERE status = 0 

SET ROWCOUNT 0

More info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188774.aspx

Or with a temp table

DECLARE @t TABLE (id INT)
INSERT @t (id)
SELECT TOP 10 id
FROM messages
WHERE status = 0
ORDER BY priority DESC

UPDATE messages
SET status = 10
WHERE id IN (SELECT id FROM @t)