Hi Bonnie,

Which database are you updating? Altering Repository databases through workflow is generally not supported because it can cause irreparable damage if done incorrectly.

If you are updating External Tables (it sounds like you are), I would recommend using a Custom Query. I have written an example query and I will walk you through it.

You retrieve field values and some of them are blank (Column2 and Column4):

(Figure 1)

You now want Workflow to update a SQL table, called "Table_Name", with the above field values. You only want the field values that are NOT blank to update SQL.

In your Workflow, you retrieve the field values, and then create a Custom Query:

(Figure 2)

The SQL code can be seen more clearly here:

UPDATE 
        Table_Name
SET
	Column1 = ISNULL(NULLIF(?, ''), Column1),
	Column2 = ISNULL(NULLIF(?, ''), Column2),
	Column3 = ISNULL(NULLIF(?, ''), Column3),
	Column4 = ISNULL(NULLIF(?, ''), Column4)
WHERE
	Criteria_Column1 = ?
        AND 
        Criteria_Column2 = ?;

Going through the code:

Table_Name is the table you're updating. Below SET, Column1 through Column4 are the names of the columns you want to update. Criteria_Column1 and Criteria_Column2 are the names of the columns that match your criteria (First Name and Last Name, for example).

The question marks are place holders for your field values, and are read top-down. This means the first question mark in the code is matched up with first question mark in your Parameter Names (Figure 2). These parameters names have Parameter Values (Figure 2) that are set with tokens made by the Retrieve Field Values tool.

Here is a test to show how this Custom Query acts on a table:

The Custom Query updated the table with only field values that were NOT empty (Figure 1), and left the other columns alone.

Please let me know if you need help configuring this to your system.