Oracle SQL

This called correlated update you can find examples below

UPDATE TABLE(<SELECT STATEMENT>) <alias1>
SET <column_1> = (
  SELECT <column_1>
  FROM <table_2> <alias2>
  WHERE <alias2.table_name> = <alias1.table_name>);

in you sample :

UPDATE table1 t1
   SET (name, desc) = (SELECT t2.name, t2.desc
                         FROM table2 t2
                        WHERE t1.id = t2.id)
 WHERE EXISTS (
    SELECT 1
      FROM table2 t2
     WHERE t1.id = t2.id )

alternative way you can do this

UPDATE (SELECT t1.id, 
               t1.name name1,
               t1.desc desc1,
               t2.name name2,
               t2.desc desc2
          FROM table1 t1,
               table2 t2
         WHERE t1.id = t2.id)
   SET name1 = name2,
       desc1 = desc2

and now the final example is

UPDATE Table1 T1 SET
T1.name = (SELECT T2.name FROM Table2 T2 WHERE T2.id = T1.id),
T1.desc = (SELECT T2.desc FROM Table2 T2 WHERE T2.id = T1.id)
WHERE T1.id IN (SELECT T2.id FROM Table2 T2 WHERE T2.id = T1.id);

Currently VARCHAR behaves exactly the same as VARCHAR2. However, this type should not be used as it is reserved for future usage
VARCHAR is reserved by Oracle to support distinction between NULL and empty string in future, as ANSI standard prescribes.
VARCHAR2 does not distinguish between a NULL and empty string, and never will.
If you rely on empty string and NULL being the same thing, you should use VARCHAR2