I have a table in Oracle called item with the following data:

item_code brand_code
------------ -------------
0000899 NI
0002121 CS
0002134 LE


and another table called item_info with the following data:

item_code brand_name
------------ ---------------
0000899
0002121
0002134


...what I'd like to do is create a statement with an if/then (or even a "case" statement) that would look at the value of "brand_code" in the "item" table then enter another value like "NIKE" in the "brand_name" field in the "item_info" table. I would give the statement 10 or 15 possible entries for "brand_code" and "brand_name"?

Instead of using if...then, how about using another table that matches brand codes with brand names?

create table item (item_code varchar(10), brand_code varchar(10));
insert into item values ('0000899', 'NI');
insert into item values ('0002121', 'CS');
insert into item values ('0002134', 'LE');

create table item_info (item_code varchar(10), brand_name varchar(20));
insert into item_info values ('0000899', '');
insert into item_info values ('0002121', '');
insert into item_info values ('0002134', '');

create table brand (brand_code varchar(10), brand_name varchar(20));
insert into brand values ('NI', 'Nike');
insert into brand values ('CS', 'Cosmo');
insert into brand values ('LE', 'Levi');

Now we can update the brand name from the brand code using that table:

update
item_info
set
brand_name = (
select
brand.brand_name
from
brand inner join
item on brand.brand_code = item.brand_code
where
item.item_code = item_info.item_code
)

select
*
from
item_info

item_code brand_name
---------- --------------------
0000899 Nike
0002121 Cosmo
0002134 Levi

I'm in agreement with Stacey on most of solution offered... except, if you are using a relational database system (which I am assuming) you would be replicating data.

Create your "brand" table with a code designation ("NI") and a full description ("Nike"), then in your item table reference only the brand code. If you need to find the description, join your item table to the brand code table.

This way, you are taking steps toward normalizing your data and building a better RDBMS

JoeB