Bulk Record Update with SQL

Question

I have two tables in a SQL Server 2008 environment with the following structure

Table1
- ID
- DescriptionID
- Description

Table2
- ID
- Description
<         


        

Answer 1

The SQL you posted in your question is one way to do it. Most things in SQL have more than one way to do it.

UPDATE
  [Table1] 
SET
  [Description]=(SELECT [Description] FROM [Table2] t2 WHERE t2.[ID]=Table1.DescriptionID)

If you are planning on running this on a PROD DB, it is best to create a snapshot or mirror of it first and test it out. Verify the data ends up as you expect for a couple records. And if you are satisfied, run it on the real DB.