I hear the SA codin'

slappin' keys again

but I ain't seen the code run

since I don't know when

well I'm stuck in SQL prison

logging slows me down

but that SA keeps...

table name questions aside, I think the update stmt with a case would go something like this:

update tbl1

set tbl1.ln = CASE tbl2.G1FirstName

       WHEN <> '' then tbl2.G1FirstName

       ELSE...

Can you post your insert statement as well?

You should also make sure SET IDENTITY INSERT isn't set to ON

I've done similar kinds of processing and it would be nice if you could always have the same format (i.e. last, first) but that never happens on a consistent basis...