PostgreSQL - update table using select statement

Question

My question was to take the first letter of a survey responders first name and the first letter of the responders last name and concatenate the two so I get something along the lines of this: Sam Smith's would result in SS.

I'm using this query to do that and get the result I needed:

select concat(letterfirst, letterlast) as users
from (select substring(first_name,1,1) as letterfirst, 
             substring(last_name,1,1) as letterlast
       from survey_responders) as user1

Now I need to pass that result into the username column in the same table, survey_responders. I know I have to use a update statement but I can't seem to wrap my head around using a select statement with an update.

Gordon Linoff · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-04 18:08:55Z

3

You are overcomplicating the situation:

update survey_responders
    set username = concat(left(first_name, 1), left(last_name, 1));

answered Apr 4, 2016 at 18:08

Gordon Linoff

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1 Comment

b.Bish Over a year ago

You made that look way too easy. ugh! I've spent the last 2 hours trying to figure that out. Thank you! :)

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