asked on

T-SQL help comparing dates to text in UPDATE

I have two date fields in the SemesterCourses table (course start date and course end date). I have another table for translating the date range to a code. This sql statement converts the dates to a string and combines them as needed.
SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), CrsStartDate, 101)+ '-' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), CrsEndDate, 101) as DateRange FROM SemesterCourses WHERE Semester = '13J')

The translation table has these rows.

What I want to do is compare the DateRange string from the SemesterCourses table to the Description field in the TranslationTable and update the field SummerSession in the SemesterCourses table with the Code from the TranslationTable.

Something like
UPDATE SemesterCourses SET s.SummerSession = t.Code
FROM SemesterCourses s, TranslationTable t
WHERE t.Description= ??

Thanks for your help.
Susan

SOLUTION

Scott Pletcher

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

scover22

ASKER

I'm trying to use the generic table already in the db to store the summer session codes. I know I can create a table specifically for the summer session values, but I'd like to avoid that if this is possible. I've made a little more progress with the sql by adding a specific course so I only get one record returned from the SELECT in the UPDATE. It still doesn't work.

UPDATE SemesterCourses SET SemesterCourses.SummerSession = Translationtables.Code
FROM SemesterCourses, Translationtables
WHERE Translationtables.FieldName = 'SummerSession' AND Translationtables.Description =
(SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), CrsStartDate, 101)+ '-' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), CrsEndDate, 101) as DateRange
FROM SemesterCourses
WHERE SemesterCourses.SemesterPS = '2135' AND SemesterCourses.Course = 'ART180194')

Scott Pletcher

If possible, add computed columns to the existing table to isolate the dates.

If you can't, we've got to deal with how to match "06/03/2013-07/05/2013" to "6/3/2013-7/5/2013".

So let's skip the standard CONVERT and do our own conversion:

...
WHERE ... AND Translationtables.Description = CAST(MONTH(CrsStartDate) AS varchar(2)) + '/' + CAST(DAY(CrsStartDate AS varchar(2)) + '-' + CAST(YEAR(CrsStartDate AS char(4)) + '-' + CAST(MONTH(CrsEndDate) AS varchar(2)) + '/' + CAST(DAY(CrsEndDate AS varchar(2)) + '-' + CAST(YEAR(CrsEndDate AS char(4))
...

scover22

ASKER

Scott, in the interest of getting this problem behind me, I took your advice and created a new table with separate fields for the start and end dates.

Now I'm using the following sql, but get the error
"String or binary data would be truncated."

UPDATE SemesterCourses SET SemesterCourses.SummerSession = SummerSessionDates.SummerSession
FROM SemesterCourses, SummerSessionDates
WHERE SummerSessionDates.CrsStartDate = SemesterCourses.CrsStartDate
AND SummerSessionDates.CrsEndDate = SemesterCourses.CrsEndDate
AND SemesterCourses.SemesterPS = '2135' AND SemesterCourses.Course = 'ART180194'

Thanks.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Scott Pletcher

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

scover22

ASKER

The field size was too small. I ended up using this code which works great.

UPDATE SemesterCourses SET SemesterCourses.SummerSession = SummerSessionDates.SummerSession
FROM SemesterCourses, SummerSessionDates
WHERE Datediff(dd,SummerSessionDates.CrsStartDate,SemesterCourses.CrsStartDate) = 0
AND Datediff(dd,SummerSessionDates.CrsEndDate,SemesterCourses.CrsEndDate) = 0
AND Right(SemesterCourses.SemesterPS,1) = '5'