update vs. delete/insert

[sourceuno]

In a Texis database, which of the following methods would be faster?

1. Update records in 1st table with values from a 2nd table.

or

2. Delete records in the 1st table that exist in the 2nd table and then insert records from the 2nd table into the 1st.

[John]

It really depends on how much of the record you are updating. If you would be updating pretty much the entire record then there is probably little difference in performance, as the total work that needs to be done is similar.

If the update is such that a lot of the indexes don't need to be updated then the update would be faster.