What is wrong with my update statement with a join in Oracle?

Question

I am working with an Oracle 10g Database.

I have the following two tables:

T_DEBTOR :
    - ID_DEBTOR
    - HEADER
T_ELEMENT :
    -         


        

Answer 1

You can do this by updating the results of a select, but the tables have to be 'key preserved':

SQL> create table t_debtor ( id_debtor integer, header varchar2(10));

Table created.

SQL> create table t_element (id_element integer, id_debtor integer, insurer varchar2(10));

Table created.

SQL> insert into t_debtor values (1, 'something');

1 row created.

SQL> insert into t_debtor values (2, 'else');

1 row created.

SQL> insert into t_debtor values (3, null);

1 row created.

SQL>
SQL> insert into t_element values (1, 1, 'foo');

1 row created.

SQL> insert into t_element values (2, 2, null);

1 row created.

SQL> insert into t_element values (3, 3, 'bar');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

That creates your tables (hint - it's very useful if you can post SQL for your example!).

Now you can update the results of a select to give what you want ...

SQL> update (select e.id_element, d.header header, e.insurer insurer
        from t_debtor d, t_element e
  2          where d.id_debtor = e.id_debtor  3
  4          and d.header is not null)
  5  set insurer = header;
set insurer = header
    *
ERROR at line 5:
ORA-01779: cannot modify a column which maps to a non key-preserved table

This fails because the table is not key preserved, but a few constraints will solve this:

alter table t_element add constraint t_element_pk primary key (id_element) using index;

alter table t_debtor add constraint t_debtor_pk primary key (id_debtor) using index;

alter table t_element add constraint t_element_debtor_fk foreign key (id_debtor) references t_debtor(id_debtor);

Now the update will work, because the tables are key preserved:

SQL> update (select e.id_element, d.header header, e.insurer insurer
        from t_debtor d, t_element e
        where d.id_debtor = e.id_debtor
        and d.header is not null)
set insurer = header  2    3    4    5  ;

2 rows updated.

SQL> select * from t_element;

ID_ELEMENT  ID_DEBTOR INSURER
---------- ---------- ----------
         1          1 something
         2          2 else
         3          3 bar