How To Insert a Row If The Update Statement Fails?

Question

Hi folks,
For some reason I just can't get this working and wanted to throw it out to everyone, very simple one so won't take much of your time up.
Going through each row of the cursor, and wanting to update a table, if the record doesn't exist, then I want to insert it.....but nothing is happening.
IF v_related_enrolement < 1
THEN
BEGIN
-- Record NOT found in Study_block_associations
-- Insert Student record into ADM_EVER_REGISTERED table
-- Set Ever_Registered column to 'N'
UPDATE adm_ever_registered
SET ever_registered = 'N'
WHERE personal_id = v_personal_id
AND appl_code = v_appl_code;
EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
INSERT INTO adm_ever_registered VALUES(v_personal_id, v_appl_code, v_choice_no, 'N');
END;
ELSE

Answer 1

It's better to use a merge statement in this case.
Your code doesn't work because of the false assumption that an update statement that doesn't update a single row fails with a no_data_found exception, where it's a successful update statement that just doesn't update a single row. So instead of the exception, use a "if sql%rowcount = 0 then" construct to make your current code work. Best option, as said, is to switch to the merge statement.
Regards,
Rob.