Inserting multiple rows of data into a single column

Absolute SQL beginner here:

I have a table ‘students’ with the columns ‘id'(primary key), ‘name’ and ‘mark’.

I am now trying to add the marks for a number of students. Just using multiple UPDATE statements like

    UPDATE students SET mark = 4.1 WHERE id = 1;
    UPDATE students SET mark = 1.8 WHERE id = 2;
    UPDATE students SET mark = 2.7 WHERE id = 3;
    UPDATE students SET mark = 3.5 WHERE id = 4;
    ...and so on

seems rather dull and labor intensive. What would be the most simple and elegant way to execute such an operation using MS SQL?

Answer

First of all I would like to say that your code is perfectly fine as is. That said, in my opinion this might be a bit prettier:

UPDATE students SET mark = CASE id
    WHEN 1 THEN 4.1
    WHEN 2 THEN 1.8
    WHEN 3 THEN 2.7
    WHEN 4 THEN 3.5
END;

But again there is no need to make it more complicated than you did it. SQL is more about writing fast and accurate code than making it pretty.

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