Consider two tables T1 and T2. T1 has two columns F1 and F2. T2 has two columns F3 and F4. We need to set F1 = F3 where F2 = F4. A query for this made for ORACLE works, but does not work under DB2. What will be the DB2 specific implementation of this query? (and the standard SQL92 implementation?.

I'm not exceptionally good at mathematics, so many of the famous algorithms' books which have a good chunk of it are a bit difficult for me to understand easily. I'm looking for a book which is easy to follow. Cormen was difficult, but Wrox's Beginning Algorithms (Java) was a more accessible read. Can you list a few books which are easy to follow? By easy, I don't mean cut-copy-paste ready code, I'm looking for lucid explanations in easy to understand language, the lesser mathematical in nature, the better. How to solve it with computers was great, and something of the kind with a greater coverage. Any recommendations?

Sorry if this sounds dumb, but I thought CASE decision making was only available on the procedure/function side, and not in flat SQL? If not, can you point me to some sample flat SQL code with CASE usage demonstrated? That'll be very helpful.

Thank you! That was fast. :)

We know there's conditional branching facilities in T-SQL and PL-SQL etc. Is there a similar IF clause available for use in flat SQL statements? I can't use stored procs for certain restriction reasons, and my scenario is this. I have one table, with columns [a, b, c, d, e, f] I will pick rows, where column c = column d. However, if column d is blank (null), then column e will be used for the comparison, if e is blank (null), then column f will be used for the comparison. This is easy as pie in T-SQL, PL-SQL etc. Is there a way to do this in flat SQL statements? Thanks.