Comments by Clive D. Pottinger (Top 4 by date)

Thanks for the reply digimanus, but I don't see how that link relates to this question. Perhaps if I rephrase: I am not not looking for a way to perform the task - I can figure that out. What I want to know is why SQL does not like my DELETE statement - why won't it bind the columns and table? What is the error I made?

Okay - sometimes all it takes is trying to tell someone else about a problem in order to find an answer (or in this case, a partial answer).
The syntax errors with the UPDATE are because I mistyped the table and column names. The query should be:
UPDATE p
SET p.prod_cat_code = (SELECT TOP(1) pcx.prod_cat_code
FROM [dbo].[product_category_xref] pcx
WHERE pcx.prod_num = p.prod_num)
FROM [dbo].[product] p;

But I still don't know what is wrong with the DELETE

Thank you, orsobrown. I knew it was something fairly straight-forward, but like I said: brain-lock!