I come from the Iseries world and I also work on SQL Server 2005 and 2008 and there subtle differences in the syntax of the SQL statements. Here is another sample of a update statement with a subquery that has an inner join on the Iseries. You need to qualify the sub query to match a field in the update statement. Update scslib.dbnucust c Set Txt6 = SubStr(txt6,1,17) || substr(Txt6,4,1) || substr(txt6,19,2) Where Exists ( Select cstmr, DACMHLLDHL, txt6, txt7 FROM scslib.dbnucust a inner Join Lawdbf7t.dbaracm1 b On (a.Cstmr = b.DACMCSTMR) Where b.DACMHLLDHL <> 'DEAD' And b.DACMHLLDHL <> 'CLSD' And b.DACMHLLDHL <> 'OLDO' And c.Cstmr = a.Cstmr)