Swap values for two rows in the same table in SQL Server

Question

I want to swap the values from two rows in a table. I have the rows IDs of the two rows. Is there any query to do that? Here is an example. Before the query I have this:

Answer 1

If you only need to swap a couple of rows, then yeah, you can brute force it with tailor-made case statements and join statements like in the other answers. But if you need to operate on many rows, that's going to be a pain.

A Simple, Scalable Solution

WITH map AS (
    SELECT *
    FROM (VALUES
        (1, 2),  -- Here's an example of swapping two rows:
        (2, 1),  -- 1 <- 2,  2 <- 1

        (3, 4),  -- Here's an example of rotating three rows:
        (4, 5),  -- 3 <- 4,  4 <- 5,  5 <- 3
        (5, 3),

        (6, 7)   -- Here's an example of just copying one row to another: 3 <- 5
    ) AS a (destID, srcID)
)
UPDATE destination
SET
    ColumnA = source.ColumnA,
    ColumnB = source.ColumnB,
    ColumnC = source.ColumnC
FROM
    SomeTable AS destination
    JOIN map ON map.destID = destination.ID
    JOIN SomeTable AS source ON source.ID = map.srcID

Notes

• You can do two-row swaps, many-row swaps, and copies. It's flexible.
• Specify as many destination/source row pairs as needed. Only destination rows will be updated.
• Specify the columns you want to be copied over. Only those columns will be updated.
• There's no temporary table to clean up.
• It's easy to reuse since the row IDs are listed in a single, obvious place.