UPDATE table1 t1
SET t1.value = 
    (select t2.CODE from table2 t2 
     where t1.value = t2.DESC) 
WHERE t1.UPDATETYPE='blah';

UPDATE table1 t1
SET t1.value = 
    (select t2.CODE from table2 t2 
     where t1.value = t2.DESC) 
WHERE t1.UPDATETYPE='blah';

该语法在Oracle中无效。你可以这样做:

UPDATE table1 SET table1.value = (SELECT table2.CODE
                                  FROM table2 
                                  WHERE table1.value = table2.DESC)
WHERE table1.UPDATETYPE='blah'
AND EXISTS (SELECT table2.CODE
            FROM table2 
            WHERE table1.value = table2.DESC);

或者你可以这样做:

UPDATE 
(SELECT table1.value as OLD, table2.CODE as NEW
 FROM table1
 INNER JOIN table2
 ON table1.value = table2.DESC
 WHERE table1.UPDATETYPE='blah'
) t
SET t.OLD = t.NEW

这取决于Oracle是否认为内联视图是可更新的 (第二个语句是否可更新取决于列出的一些规则 这里)。

不要使用上面的一些答案。

有些人建议使用嵌套SELECT，不要这样做，它非常慢。如果你有很多记录要更新，使用join，就像这样:

update (select bonus 
        from employee_bonus b 
        inner join employees e on b.employee_id = e.employee_id 
        where e.bonus_eligible = 'N') t
set t.bonus = 0;

更多细节请参见此链接。 http://geekswithblogs.net/WillSmith/archive/2008/06/18/oracle-update-with-join-again.aspx。

另外，确保所有要连接的表上都有主键。

 UPDATE ( SELECT t1.value, t2.CODE
          FROM table1 t1
          INNER JOIN table2 t2 ON t1.Value = t2.DESC
          WHERE t1.UPDATETYPE='blah')
 SET t1.Value= t2.CODE

只是作为一个完整的问题，因为我们谈论的是Oracle，这也可以做到:

declare
begin
  for sel in (
    select table2.code, table2.desc
    from table1
    join table2 on table1.value = table2.desc
    where table1.updatetype = 'blah'
  ) loop
    update table1 
    set table1.value = sel.code
    where table1.updatetype = 'blah' and table1.value = sel.desc;    
  end loop;
end;
/