SQL Reloaded: Self-Join in Update Query I

    While reading R. Scheldon’s article on “UPDATE Basics in SQL Server” I remembered about a problem I had long time ago while attempting to do a self-join in an Update query. Such a query is quite useful in hierarchical structures consisting of one-level parent-child relations stored in the same table, when needed to update the parent based on child information, or vice-versa. The problem I had could be also exemplified by using a simple table (no hierarchical structure), here’s the query:  

-- self-join update - problematic query 
UPDATE Production.Product 
SET StandardCost = ITM.StandardCost* (1+.012) 
FROM Production.Product ITM 
WHERE Production.Product.ProductID = ITM.ProductID 

 The above statement returns the following error:
Msg 4104, Level 16, State 1, Line 5
The multi-part identifier "Production.Product.ProductID" could not be bound.

    In order to avoid this error message, the table from the FROM clause could be included in an inline view, something like:

-- self-join update - solution 
UPDATE Production.Product 
SET StandardCost = ITM.StandardCost*(1+.012) 
FROM ( -- inline view 
    SELECT * 
    FROM Production.Product ITM 
    ) ITM  
WHERE Production.Product.ProductID = ITM.ProductID 

    The inline view could be replaced with a standard view, table-valued UDF or the update could be done through a view. For exemplification I will use only the first and third case, here’s the view based on Production.Product table and the queries corresponding to the two cases:

-- view based on Production.Product 
CREATE VIEW Production.vProductTest 
AS 
SELECT *  
FROM Production.Product   

-- self-join update through view update 
UPDATE Production.vProductTest 
SET StandardCost = ITM.StandardCost* (1+.012) 
FROM Production.Product ITM 
WHERE Production.vProductTest.ProductID = ITM.ProductID     

-- self-join update from view 
UPDATE Production.Product 
SET StandardCost = ITM.StandardCost* (1+.012) 
FROM Production.vProductTest ITM 
WHERE Production.Product.ProductID = ITM.ProductID 

Note:
1.    The first update query was written in this way only to exemplify the self-update within an hierarchical structure, if it’s needed to modify the StandardCost and nothing more, then the update could be written simply in any of the following forms:

-- Query 1: update statement 
UPDATE Production.Product 
SET StandardCost = StandardCost* (1+.012) 

--Query 2: update statement 
UPDATE ITM 
SET StandardCost = StandardCost * (1+.012) 
FROM Production.Product ITM 

2.    Because the join constraint is based on a hierarchical structure that considers in the join different columns, the query can’t be written as follows:

 
--simple update statement 

UPDATE Production.Product 
SET StandardCost = ITM.StandardCost* (1+.012) 
FROM Production.Product ITM 

 
   This query is nothing more than an alternative to the queries shown in the first note.