I just showed you above that you concatenate strings in SQL using the '+' operator:  select "A" + ICD_9 ...

You are at a point where you don't yet understand SQL - I strongly suggest that until you understand SQL you leave perl and DBI out of it, and write the queries that you want to execute in a text editor and run them using isql.exe or some other tool that connects directly to the database. This will give you direct feedback on what you are doing.

Are you inserting a NEW row in the ICD_9_Disease_Types table, or are you updating an existing row?

From the code above I am guessing that you are updating an existing row, in which case you need to know the relationship between the two tables.

Michael

my $sql = "
UPDATE ICD_9_Disease_Types
SET ICD_9_code = CONCAT('A', ICD_9_code)
WHERE ICD_9 > 0";

my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql) or $dbh->errstr();

my $rows_updated = $sth->execute();

print "We updated $rows_updated rows\n";
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I don't think that CONCAT works with MS SQL Server. I have tried the following that does not give any error message but does not do what I want either.

    my $sqlB = "update ICD_9_Disease_Types set ICD_9_code = ('A') + IC
+D_9 FROM ICD_9 WHERE ICD_9 > 0";

    my $sthG = $dbh->prepare($sqlB) or $dbh->errstr();
    my $rows_updated = $sthG->execute();
    
    print "We updated $rows_updated rows\n";
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It gives the message:

We updated 0E0 rows
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I am not really sure what the OEO refers to.