Any Sql Solution for this?

Question

Hi guys,
How can I update rows which total upto the number of dollars the user enters.
Ex: I have the following rows in the table
Col1 Col2 Col3 Col4
1------10------A
2-------3------B
3-------7------C
4------20------D
5-------5------E
6-------5------F
I have a procedure which takes a user input (say 23). Now I need to update Col4 with EXT for all those rows which total to 23. So the result should look like
Col1---Col2---Col3----Col4
1------10------A------EXT
2-------3------B------EXT
3-------7------C
4------20------D
5-------5------E------EXT
6-------5------F------EXT
Had to insert dashes for formatting purposes...
Any solutions will be appreciated.
Thanks
John

Answer 1

Hi John,
Well, that's a very strange way to do it but if you must, there's no problem saying:
UPDATE TABLE SET Col4 = 'EXT' WHERE Col1 + Col2 + Col3 = 23;
However, I suspect you intend that the user may enter any number of values. If this is the case, you'd be much better off (in the relational world, anyway) entering a new row for each of the new values, viz:
User, Date, Input
1, 01/01/2003, 10
1, 13/01/2003, 5
1, 15/01/2003, 8
2, 19/01/2003, 20
2, 10/02/2003, 3
3, 4/01/2003, 21
Now you can say:
SELECT SUM (Input) Total, COUNT (Input) NrInputs FROM TABLE GROUP BY User HAVING SUM (Input) = 23;
... which works much better and will work for any number of columns. You don't even need the date column unless, for some reason, you need to order the input.
d.