title: SQL UPDATE TOP () or UPDATE with SELECT TOP
body: <p>I have couple thousands records and I need to update them in batches of 350 records.</p>
  
  <p>I would like to know if there is any difference in the below two update statements and if one of them would work faster, use less database resources etc.</p>
  
  <h2>Statement 1:</h2>
  
  <pre><code>UPDATE TOP (350) database1
  SET value1 = '', value2 ='', value3 = ''
  WHERE value1 = '123'
  </code></pre>
  
  <h2>Statement 2:</h2>
  
  <pre><code>    UPDATE database1
      SET value1 = '', value2 ='', value3 = ''
      WHERE ID in 
         (SELECT TOP 350 ID FROM database1
         WHERE value1 = '123')
  </code></pre>