Hi all, I'm trying to do something like this.

update myTable
case length(duration)
when 8 then set hours = substr(duration,1,2)
else set hours = substr(duration,1, 1)
end case

Depending on the length of the 'duration' field, I'm trying to extract
either the first or the first two characters.
It ain't workin'.

Is such a construct possible withing pl/sql? The few examples that
I've googled around give easy options for using it within a select but
no examples within an update.

Thanks,
Sashi

update mytable set hours=case when length(duration)=8 then
substr(duration,1,2) else substr(duration,1,1) end

or shorter

update mytable set
hours=decode(length(duration),8,substr(duration,1,2),substr(duration,1,1))

(assuming you wish update all rows in your table)
Best regards

Maxim