A question on UPDATE

[Bob Barrows]

Just something to get clear in my head. Why, in an Update statement,
can you update only one table at a time?

Err ... because.

What other answer did you expect? We're not Microsoft, we're just users of
the product.

And whatever the answer may
be, why is it possible in Access?

Perhaps it shouldn't be ...
In all my years working with Access, I never had an need to update multiple
tables in a single statement.
Maybe the developers of the Jet engine figured that the lack of stored
procedures required this capability to be built in. I don't know ... again,
you'd have to ask Microsoft.

[Erland Sommarskog]

Just something to get clear in my head. Why, in an Update statement,
can you update only one table at a time? And whatever the answer may
be, why is it possible in Access?

In the SQL standard there is no provision for updating multiple tables
at a time. Not that the SQL standard is extremly well respected. Few
products implement all there is in the standard, and many products add
there own features. And it is not uncommon that products have behaviour
that is in conflict with the standard.

While Access and SQL Server both come from Microsoft, there are huge
differences between them. And while SQL Server has lots of oddments, it
probably does a better job in conforming to the standard.

If you feel that the ability to update multiple tables in one statement,
submit a request on http://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver/feedback.
I would however be highly surprised if Microsoft would implement that.