PL/SQL Switching two columns from two tables - oracle

Question

Suppose I have two tables (tblA and tblB) and want to switch the second column of each table (tblA.Grade and tblB.Grade) as shown:
+-------------------------------------+
| table a table b |
+-------------------------------------+
| name grade name grade |
| a 60 f 50 |
| b 45 g 70 |
| c 30 h 90 |
+-------------------------------------+
Now, I would like to switch the grade column from table a to table b and the the grade column from table b to table a. The result should look like this:
+-----------------------------------------+
| table a table b |
+-----------------------------------------+
| name grade name grade |
| a 50 f 60 |
| b 70 g 45 |
| c 90 h 30 |
+-----------------------------------------+
I have created the tables, loaded them into cursors using bulk collect and the following code to complete the transformation:
insert into tblA values('a',60);
insert into tblA values('b',45);
insert into tblA values('c',30);
insert into tblb values('f',70);
insert into tblb values('g',80);
insert into tblb values('h',90);
.
DECLARE
TYPE tbla_type IS TABLE OF tbla%ROWTYPE;
l_tbla tbla_type;
TYPE tblb_type IS TABLE OF tblb%ROWTYPE;
l_tblb tblb_type;
BEGIN
-- All rows at once...
SELECT *
BULK COLLECT INTO l_tbla
FROM tbla;
SELECT *
BULK COLLECT INTO l_tblb
FROM tblb;
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (l_tblb.COUNT);
FOR indx IN 1 .. l_tbla.COUNT
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (l_tbla(indx).lname);
update tbla set grade = l_tblb(indx).grade
where l_tbla(indx).lname= tbla.lname;
update tblb set grade = l_tbla(indx).grade
where l_tblb(indx).lname= tblb.lname;
END LOOP;
END;
So, although I did the task, I am wondering if there is a more simple solution that I have not thought of?
Please let me know if anyone knows if there may be a more simple solution?

Answer 1

Note that there is nothing called first or second record in databases as there is no guarantee that the first record entered will be the first one returned. So there should always be an order by to decide first/second etc.
So assuming you want the records to be ordered by name and then swap grade of smallest name of first table with grade of smallest name of second table,
Now assuming you fix the order thingy in your existing code, and if it is working, I believe it would be faster than the way I would do it below. Something like
Create a temp table and put names and grade ordered by name.
Reason of using temp table is mostly because later if I want to correct or revert the data, I can use the same temp table to reverse the merge.
create table tmp1 as
with ta as
(select t.* ,
row_number() over (order by name) as rnk
from tblA t)
,tb as
(select t.* ,
row_number() over (order by name) as rnk
from tblb t)
select ta.name as ta_name,ta.grade as ta_grade,
tb.name as tb_name,tb.grade as tb_grade
from ta inner join tb
on ta.rnk=tb.rnk
Output of tmp1
+---------+----------+---------+----------+
| TA_NAME | TA_GRADE | TB_NAME | TB_GRADE |
+---------+----------+---------+----------+
| a | 60 | f | 70 |
| b | 45 | g | 80 |
| c | 30 | h | 90 |
+---------+----------+---------+----------+
Then use merge to swap value from tmp1.
merge into tbla t1
using tmp1 t
on (t1.name=t.ta_name)
when matched then update
set t1.grade=t.tb_grade;
merge into tblb t1
using tmp1 t
on (t1.name=t.tb_name)
when matched then update
set t1.grade=t.ta_grade;
If satisfied with result, drop the temp table later
drop table tmp1;