Utilizando postgres 8.4, mi objetivo es actualizar la tabla existente:

CREATE TABLE public.dummy
(
  address_id SERIAL,
  addr1 character(40),
  addr2 character(40),
  city character(25),
  state character(2),
  zip character(5),
  customer boolean,
  supplier boolean,
  partner boolean

)
WITH (
  OIDS=FALSE
);

nicialmente probé mi consulta usando la instrucción de inserción:

insert into address customer,supplier,partner
SELECT  
    case when cust.addr1 is not null then TRUE else FALSE end customer, 
    case when suppl.addr1 is not null then TRUE else FALSE end supplier,
    case when partn.addr1 is not null then TRUE else FALSE end partner
from (
    SELECT *
        from address) pa
    left outer join cust_original cust
        on (pa.addr1=cust.addr1 and pa.addr2=cust.addr2 and pa.city=cust.city 
            and pa.state=cust.state and substring(cust.zip,1,5) = pa.zip  )
    left outer join supp_original suppl 
        on (pa.addr1=suppl.addr1 and pa.addr2=suppl.addr2 and pa.city=suppl.city 
                and pa.state=suppl.state and pa.zip = substring(suppl.zip,1,5))
    left outer join partner_original partn
        on (pa.addr1=partn.addr1 and pa.addr2=partn.addr2 and pa.city=partn.city
                  and pa.state=partn.state and pa.zip = substring(partn.zip,1,5) )
where pa.address_id = address_id

bebé novato No puedo convertir a la declaración de actualización, es decir, actualizar las filas existentes con los valores devueltos por la declaración de selección. Cualquier ayuda es muy apreciada