Update Column From Another Table

Hello all, was wondering if you could point me in the right direction for this.

I have a db with a column classifications, and in that column are 'Accountants - (1234)' 'Book-keepers - (18) etc etc. Now what I want to do is remove the - (xxxx) section and obviously the white space, so I am just left with 'Accountants' 'Book-keepers' etc.

1. Is there an easy way to do this?

Ok so my thoughts were create a another table and put the ammended classifications in that to update the first table. Your probably asking why not just do it on the first table...Answer. There are over 150,000 records to change.

So I now have my first table with column classification and my second table with the correct classification ammendments.

I can sit down and manually type

UPDATE table1
SET classifications = 'Accountants'
Where classifications = 'Accounts - (xxxx)'

until i have completed the entire list in table 2 but I was hoping you good people would know a way to work through the list so it would automatically update each classification correctly.

The problem I have here is I dont know how to work through table 2 and match it to something in table 1 and update it.

Any help is greatfully appreciated