Rob Farley shows us UPDATE FROM:
1. It can let you access data in the columns of those tables, to use in predicates or expressions.
2. It can let you filter the data in the base table, by only allowing rows which match, such as when using an inner join or right outer join.
3. It can cause rows in the base table to be returned multiple times, if multiple rows in the joined table match a single row in the base table.
4. It can introduce NULL rows, if a full or right outer join is being done (or a left outer join with the base table second) and there are rows in the joined table that don’t match any rows in the base table.
This is a useful bit of T-SQL-specific syntax, but it’s a sharper edge than most UPDATE statements. For a look back in history, Hugo Kornelis wanted to deprecate this syntax with the release of SQL Server 2008 (though MERGE has its own bugs and “Won’t Fix” problems, so in retrospect, perhaps it’s best that we still have UPDATE FROM).