You most certainly do not need a CURSOR for this. In fact, as a beginning SQL person it may not be too late to unlearn what will become a bad habit. Forget that you ever heard of CURSORs now! Learn that there is a better path. The anti-RBAR alliance will forever bless you if you do.

Here's the solution without a CURSOR:

DECLARE @Table1 TABLE

(total INT, EmpID VARCHAR(6), Name VARCHAR(10), [Date] DATE

,[Start Time] TIME, [End Time] TIME)

INSERT INTO @Table1

SELECT 0,'A00030','John','2013/03/06','07:59:19','11:59:25'

UNION ALL SELECT 0,'A00030','John','2013/03/11','07:58:40','10:36:35'

UNION ALL SELECT 0,'A00048','May','2013/03/31','07:50:20','11:59:10'

DECLARE @Table2 TABLE

(ID INT, Name VARCHAR(10), [Date] DATE, LeaveType VARCHAR(30)

,Note VARCHAR(3), [Start Time] DATETIME, [End Time] DATETIME)

INSERT INTO @Table2

SELECT 596184,'john','2013/03/06','Sick Leave','22x','2013-04-04 18:00:00.000','2013-04-04 20:00:00.000'

UNION ALL SELECT 596185,'john','2013/03/11','Sick Leave','22x','2013-04-04 18:00:00.000','2013-04-04 20:00:00.000'

SELECT * FROM @Table1

UPDATE t1

SET total = total + 1

FROM @Table1 t1

INNER JOIN @Table2 t2

ON t1.Name = t2.name AND t1.[Date] = t2.[Date] AND Note = '22x'

SELECT * FROM @Table1