Can I set multiple columns to NULL in MySQL in bulk? - mysql

I have a very large database and for testing, I want to set a certain amount of data to NULL.
As an example, I have 57 columns across 3 tables, all of which need to be nullified. I can't delete the rows, I just need to know that if the row exists and there's no data in those fields, that everything still works.
To clarify, all the data in those fields has been moved to anther table, and the old data was not wiped in the migration. To test my reports I need to know that the reports are pulling from the new location, not the old, since as new data is added, it will only go to the new location. Our plan is to generate each report from the old database, migrate, and then generate them again and compare. But to ensure that they are pulling from the right place, we want to wipe the old data so it doesn't provide a false positive.
Is there a way for me to do this in bulk or should I resign myself to writing one comma separated SET statement after another?


You can create the statements using the data from the internal information_schema.COLUMNS table.
Assuming you have this table:
CREATE TABLE my_table (
keep1 INT,
keep2 INT,
set_null1 INT,
set_null2 INT,
set_null3 INT
);
and you want to set all columns to NULL except of keep1 and keep2. Execute the following script:
set #db_name = 'test';
set #table_name = 'my_table';
set #exclude_columns = 'keep1,keep2';
select concat(
'UPDATE `', #table_name, '` SET\n',
group_concat('`', COLUMN_NAME, '` = NULL' separator ',\n'),
';'
)
from information_schema.COLUMNS c
where c.TABLE_SCHEMA = #db_name
and c.TABLE_NAME = #table_name
and find_in_set(c.COLUMN_NAME, #exclude_columns) = 0;
This will generate the following statement:
UPDATE `my_table` SET
`set_null1` = NULL,
`set_null2` = NULL,
`set_null3` = NULL;
Copy the result and paste it into your UPDATE script. Do it for all 12 tables adjusting the variables #db_name, #table_name and #exclude_columns.
See demo on db-fiddle.


This is a very unusual task for an SQL database, so it's not surprising that it's a bit awkward.
As you know, to set multiple columns to NULL in an UPDATE statement, you'd have to set each column individually.
UPDATE mytable
SET col1 = NULL, col2 = NULL, ... col57 = NULL
WHERE id = ?;
That could be quite a bit of typing. Or it could be a task to write code to loop over the column names in your table, and concatenate the terms for UPDATE statement. Up to you.
An alternative that might be easier is to delete the row and then re-insert it with no values specified except the primary key.
DELETE FROM mytable WHERE id = ?;
INSERT INTO mytable SET id = ?;
By omitting the other columns, they'll be NULL or else take a DEFAULT value defined in your table. If you want those columns with defaults to be NULL too, you'll have to specify that.
INSERT INTO mytable SET id = ?, col23 = NULL;

Related

mysql multiple update and insert query at once [duplicate]

I know that you can insert multiple rows at once, is there a way to update multiple rows at once (as in, in one query) in MySQL?
Edit:
For example I have the following
Name id Col1 Col2
Row1 1 6 1
Row2 2 2 3
Row3 3 9 5
Row4 4 16 8
I want to combine all the following Updates into one query
UPDATE table SET Col1 = 1 WHERE id = 1;
UPDATE table SET Col1 = 2 WHERE id = 2;
UPDATE table SET Col2 = 3 WHERE id = 3;
UPDATE table SET Col1 = 10 WHERE id = 4;
UPDATE table SET Col2 = 12 WHERE id = 4;

Yes, that's possible - you can use INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE.
Using your example:
INSERT INTO table (id,Col1,Col2) VALUES (1,1,1),(2,2,3),(3,9,3),(4,10,12)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE Col1=VALUES(Col1),Col2=VALUES(Col2);

Since you have dynamic values, you need to use an IF or CASE for the columns to be updated. It gets kinda ugly, but it should work.
Using your example, you could do it like:
UPDATE table SET Col1 = CASE id
WHEN 1 THEN 1
WHEN 2 THEN 2
WHEN 4 THEN 10
ELSE Col1
END,
Col2 = CASE id
WHEN 3 THEN 3
WHEN 4 THEN 12
ELSE Col2
END
WHERE id IN (1, 2, 3, 4);

The question is old, yet I'd like to extend the topic with another answer.
My point is, the easiest way to achieve it is just to wrap multiple queries with a transaction. The accepted answer INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE is a nice hack, but one should be aware of its drawbacks and limitations:
As being said, if you happen to launch the query with rows whose primary keys don't exist in the table, the query inserts new "half-baked" records. Probably it's not what you want
If you have a table with a not null field without default value and don't want to touch this field in the query, you'll get "Field 'fieldname' doesn't have a default value" MySQL warning even if you don't insert a single row at all. It will get you into trouble, if you decide to be strict and turn mysql warnings into runtime exceptions in your app.
I made some performance tests for three of suggested variants, including the INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE variant, a variant with "case / when / then" clause and a naive approach with transaction. You may get the python code and results here. The overall conclusion is that the variant with case statement turns out to be twice as fast as two other variants, but it's quite hard to write correct and injection-safe code for it, so I personally stick to the simplest approach: using transactions.
Edit: Findings of Dakusan prove that my performance estimations are not quite valid. Please see this answer for another, more elaborate research.

Not sure why another useful option is not yet mentioned:
UPDATE my_table m
JOIN (
SELECT 1 as id, 10 as _col1, 20 as _col2
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 5, 10
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 15, 30
) vals ON m.id = vals.id
SET col1 = _col1, col2 = _col2;

All of the following applies to InnoDB.
I feel knowing the speeds of the 3 different methods is important.
There are 3 methods:
INSERT: INSERT with ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
TRANSACTION: Where you do an update for each record within a transaction
CASE: In which you a case/when for each different record within an UPDATE
I just tested this, and the INSERT method was 6.7x faster for me than the TRANSACTION method. I tried on a set of both 3,000 and 30,000 rows.
The TRANSACTION method still has to run each individually query, which takes time, though it batches the results in memory, or something, while executing. The TRANSACTION method is also pretty expensive in both replication and query logs.
Even worse, the CASE method was 41.1x slower than the INSERT method w/ 30,000 records (6.1x slower than TRANSACTION). And 75x slower in MyISAM. INSERT and CASE methods broke even at ~1,000 records. Even at 100 records, the CASE method is BARELY faster.
So in general, I feel the INSERT method is both best and easiest to use. The queries are smaller and easier to read and only take up 1 query of action. This applies to both InnoDB and MyISAM.
Bonus stuff:
The solution for the INSERT non-default-field problem is to temporarily turn off the relevant SQL modes: SET SESSION sql_mode=REPLACE(REPLACE(##SESSION.sql_mode,"STRICT_TRANS_TABLES",""),"STRICT_ALL_TABLES",""). Make sure to save the sql_mode first if you plan on reverting it.
As for other comments I've seen that say the auto_increment goes up using the INSERT method, this does seem to be the case in InnoDB, but not MyISAM.
Code to run the tests is as follows. It also outputs .SQL files to remove php interpreter overhead
<?php
//Variables
$NumRows=30000;
//These 2 functions need to be filled in
function InitSQL()
{
}
function RunSQLQuery($Q)
{
}
//Run the 3 tests
InitSQL();
for($i=0;$i<3;$i++)
RunTest($i, $NumRows);
function RunTest($TestNum, $NumRows)
{
$TheQueries=Array();
$DoQuery=function($Query) use (&$TheQueries)
{
RunSQLQuery($Query);
$TheQueries[]=$Query;
};
$TableName='Test';
$DoQuery('DROP TABLE IF EXISTS '.$TableName);
$DoQuery('CREATE TABLE '.$TableName.' (i1 int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, i2 int NOT NULL, primary key (i1)) ENGINE=InnoDB');
$DoQuery('INSERT INTO '.$TableName.' (i2) VALUES ('.implode('), (', range(2, $NumRows+1)).')');
if($TestNum==0)
{
$TestName='Transaction';
$Start=microtime(true);
$DoQuery('START TRANSACTION');
for($i=1;$i<=$NumRows;$i++)
$DoQuery('UPDATE '.$TableName.' SET i2='.(($i+5)*1000).' WHERE i1='.$i);
$DoQuery('COMMIT');
}
if($TestNum==1)
{
$TestName='Insert';
$Query=Array();
for($i=1;$i<=$NumRows;$i++)
$Query[]=sprintf("(%d,%d)", $i, (($i+5)*1000));
$Start=microtime(true);
$DoQuery('INSERT INTO '.$TableName.' VALUES '.implode(', ', $Query).' ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE i2=VALUES(i2)');
}
if($TestNum==2)
{
$TestName='Case';
$Query=Array();
for($i=1;$i<=$NumRows;$i++)
$Query[]=sprintf('WHEN %d THEN %d', $i, (($i+5)*1000));
$Start=microtime(true);
$DoQuery("UPDATE $TableName SET i2=CASE i1\n".implode("\n", $Query)."\nEND\nWHERE i1 IN (".implode(',', range(1, $NumRows)).')');
}
print "$TestName: ".(microtime(true)-$Start)."<br>\n";
file_put_contents("./$TestName.sql", implode(";\n", $TheQueries).';');
}

UPDATE table1, table2 SET table1.col1='value', table2.col1='value' WHERE table1.col3='567' AND table2.col6='567'
This should work for ya.
There is a reference in the MySQL manual for multiple tables.

Use a temporary table
// Reorder items
function update_items_tempdb(&$items)
{
shuffle($items);
$table_name = uniqid('tmp_test_');
$sql = "CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE `$table_name` ("
." `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT"
.", `position` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL"
.", PRIMARY KEY (`id`)"
.") ENGINE = MEMORY";
query($sql);
$i = 0;
$sql = '';
foreach ($items as &$item)
{
$item->position = $i++;
$sql .= ($sql ? ', ' : '')."({$item->id}, {$item->position})";
}
if ($sql)
{
query("INSERT INTO `$table_name` (id, position) VALUES $sql");
$sql = "UPDATE `test`, `$table_name` SET `test`.position = `$table_name`.position"
." WHERE `$table_name`.id = `test`.id";
query($sql);
}
query("DROP TABLE `$table_name`");
}

Why does no one mention multiple statements in one query?
In php, you use multi_query method of mysqli instance.
From the php manual
MySQL optionally allows having multiple statements in one statement string. Sending multiple statements at once reduces client-server round trips but requires special handling.
Here is the result comparing to other 3 methods in update 30,000 raw. Code can be found here which is based on answer from #Dakusan
Transaction: 5.5194580554962
Insert: 0.20669293403625
Case: 16.474853992462
Multi: 0.0412278175354
As you can see, multiple statements query is more efficient than the highest answer.
If you get error message like this:
PHP Warning: Error while sending SET_OPTION packet
You may need to increase the max_allowed_packet in mysql config file which in my machine is /etc/mysql/my.cnf and then restart mysqld.

There is a setting you can alter called 'multi statement' that disables MySQL's 'safety mechanism' implemented to prevent (more than one) injection command. Typical to MySQL's 'brilliant' implementation, it also prevents user from doing efficient queries.
Here (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/mysql-set-server-option.html) is some info on the C implementation of the setting.
If you're using PHP, you can use mysqli to do multi statements (I think php has shipped with mysqli for a while now)
$con = new mysqli('localhost','user1','password','my_database');
$query = "Update MyTable SET col1='some value' WHERE id=1 LIMIT 1;";
$query .= "UPDATE MyTable SET col1='other value' WHERE id=2 LIMIT 1;";
//etc
$con->multi_query($query);
$con->close();
Hope that helps.

You can alias the same table to give you the id's you want to insert by (if you are doing a row-by-row update:
UPDATE table1 tab1, table1 tab2 -- alias references the same table
SET
col1 = 1
,col2 = 2
. . .
WHERE
tab1.id = tab2.id;
Additionally, It should seem obvious that you can also update from other tables as well. In this case, the update doubles as a "SELECT" statement, giving you the data from the table you are specifying. You are explicitly stating in your query the update values so, the second table is unaffected.

You may also be interested in using joins on updates, which is possible as well.
Update someTable Set someValue = 4 From someTable s Inner Join anotherTable a on s.id = a.id Where a.id = 4
-- Only updates someValue in someTable who has a foreign key on anotherTable with a value of 4.
Edit: If the values you are updating aren't coming from somewhere else in the database, you'll need to issue multiple update queries.

No-one has yet mentioned what for me would be a much easier way to do this - Use a SQL editor that allows you to execute multiple individual queries. This screenshot is from Sequel Ace, I'd assume that Sequel Pro and probably other editors have similar functionality. (This of course assumes you only need to run this as a one-off thing rather than as an integrated part of your app/site).

And now the easy way
update my_table m, -- let create a temp table with populated values
(select 1 as id, 20 as value union -- this part will be generated
select 2 as id, 30 as value union -- using a backend code
-- for loop
select N as id, X as value
) t
set m.value = t.value where t.id=m.id -- now update by join - quick

Yes ..it is possible using INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE sql statement..
syntax:
INSERT INTO table_name (a,b,c) VALUES (1,2,3),(4,5,6)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE a=VALUES(a),b=VALUES(b),c=VALUES(c)

use
REPLACE INTO`table` VALUES (`id`,`col1`,`col2`) VALUES
(1,6,1),(2,2,3),(3,9,5),(4,16,8);
Please note:
id has to be a primary unique key
if you use foreign keys to
reference the table, REPLACE deletes then inserts, so this might
cause an error

I took the answer from #newtover and extended it using the new json_table function in MySql 8. This allows you to create a stored procedure to handle the workload rather than building your own SQL text in code:
drop table if exists `test`;
create table `test` (
`Id` int,
`Number` int,
PRIMARY KEY (`Id`)
);
insert into test (Id, Number) values (1, 1), (2, 2);
DROP procedure IF EXISTS `Test`;
DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE `Test`(
p_json json
)
BEGIN
update test s
join json_table(p_json, '$[*]' columns(`id` int path '$.id', `number` int path '$.number')) v
on s.Id=v.id set s.Number=v.number;
END$$
DELIMITER ;
call `Test`('[{"id": 1, "number": 10}, {"id": 2, "number": 20}]');
select * from test;
drop table if exists `test`;
It's a few ms slower than pure SQL but I'm happy to take the hit rather than generate the sql text in code. Not sure how performant it is with huge recordsets (the JSON object has a max size of 1Gb) but I use it all the time when updating 10k rows at a time.

The following will update all rows in one table
Update Table Set
Column1 = 'New Value'
The next one will update all rows where the value of Column2 is more than 5
Update Table Set
Column1 = 'New Value'
Where
Column2 > 5
There is all Unkwntech's example of updating more than one table
UPDATE table1, table2 SET
table1.col1 = 'value',
table2.col1 = 'value'
WHERE
table1.col3 = '567'
AND table2.col6='567'

UPDATE tableName SET col1='000' WHERE id='3' OR id='5'
This should achieve what you'r looking for. Just add more id's. I have tested it.

UPDATE `your_table` SET
`something` = IF(`id`="1","new_value1",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="1", "nv1",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="2","new_value2",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="2", "nv2",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="4","new_value3",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="4", "nv3",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="6","new_value4",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="6", "nv4",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="3","new_value5",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="3", "nv5",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="5","new_value6",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="5", "nv6",`smth2`)
// You just building it in php like
$q = 'UPDATE `your_table` SET ';
foreach($data as $dat){
$q .= '
`something` = IF(`id`="'.$dat->id.'","'.$dat->value.'",`something`),
`smth2` = IF(`id`="'.$dat->id.'", "'.$dat->value2.'",`smth2`),';
}
$q = substr($q,0,-1);
So you can update hole table with one query

MySQL: Update table with an IN (#variable) failed

I'm trying to update a table, with the IN function and a variable.
The content of the variable is a sub-query that returns the expected values aka ID for each STRING. When I copy/paste the values in the update, everything is fine.
USE `DB1`;
SET SQL_SAFE_UPDATES = 0;
SET #VAR1 = "STRING1,STRING2,STRING3,STRING4";
SET #VAR2 = (SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(`id`) FROM `tbl_A` WHERE FIND_IN_SET(`description`, #VAR1) AND `fieldtype` = '');
UPDATE `tbl_A`
SET `idaccount` = 2
WHERE `id` IN (#VAR2);
SET SQL_SAFE_UPDATES = 1;
So why when I use the variable, it updates only the first row?

The variable #VAR2 is a scalar variable, and can't store a result set. To do that, you would need a table variable, which MySQL does not directly support (note that other databases, such as SQL Server, do support them).
But, you may inline the subquery and it should work:
SET #VAR1 = "STRING1,STRING2,STRING3,STRING4";
UPDATE tbl_A
SET idaccount = 2
WHERE id IN (SELECT id FROM (
SELECT id FROM tbl_A
WHERE FIND_IN_SET(description, #VAR1) AND fieldtype = ''
)x );
Note that the subquery following the IN clause of the update is wrapped twice, to avoid the problem of trying to reference the same table which is being updated. This trick actually materializes the subquery, leaving it independent of what happens during the update.

Mysql Select row, update values and insert into another table

I have a temporary table with some rows:
$query = "CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE {$tn} (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`type` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`title` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB";
I would like to select each row in this table, nulify id, update 'type' (for example) and insert whole selected row into another table (which has the same columns as this table).
I tried this but I am getting an error near SET ( You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 'SET )
foreach ($ids as $id) {//this is each id in temp table
$query = "INSERT INTO $another_table
SELECT * FROM {$tn} WHERE id='$id'
SET id=NULL, type='foo'";
$result = $conn->query($query) or die(mysqli_error($conn));
}

I am not a PHP guru, but this is the syntax you should be following. You may select any number of constants you wish from a table.
INSERT INTO $another_table (id, type, title)
SELECT NULL, 'foo', title
FROM {$tn}
WHERE id = '$id';
This assumes that the other destination table uses the same name for its columns as your first table. If not, then you will have to change the first line of my query.
Note that you should ideally be using a prepared statement here.

If both your tables have the SAME amount of columns, with the same order, and you want to avoid listing each and every column, You could just copy the entry and updated the changed value within the same transaction:
START TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO table2 SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE id = 57;
UPDATE table2 SET columnYouWantToChange="New Value" WHERE id = 57;
COMMIT;
But maybe you should OUTLINE, what you are trying to achieve? having 2 tables with identical columns "smells" like bad design. Maybe you'd better use the same table along with revision numbers of your data row?

Your SQL is not valid, You have an insert statement with a set statement in it.
All you need is a basic INSERT SELECT this is also no need for the for loop.
INSERT INTO $another_table (id, type, title)
SELECT id, 'foo', title
FROM {$tn}
You can do the set statement as an update after inserting all rows if that is easier to get you head around.
UPDATE $another_table SET id = NULL
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/insert-select.html

FYI if you want SET many or all the columns from a table with the same column names this query run on information_schema will generate the most tedious part of the code for you:
select concat('target.', column_name ,' = ','source.', column_name ,', ') as line
from `columns`
where `columns`.table_name = 'target';

How to get rows whose columns values are not null

I want to get rows of a table such that no column value is null. No hardcoding of column values. I have hundreds of column names so.
Output should be only row 2 since all that row has the values for all the columns. I do not want to specify all the column names for is not null. It should take it programmatically. Even if i add a new column it should work without changing the query. That is my vision.

I found something, but that means using CURSOR
DECLARE #ColumnName VARCHAR(200)
DECLARE #ColumnCount INT
DECLARE #sql VARCHAR(400)
CREATE TABLE #tempTable (Id INT)
DECLARE GetNonNullRows CURSOR
FOR
SELECT c.NAME, (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sys.columns col WHERE col.object_id = c.OBJECT_ID) FROM sys.tables AS t
JOIN sys.columns AS c ON t.object_id = c.object_id
WHERE t.name = 'SomeTable' AND t.type = 'U'
OPEN GetNonNullRows
FETCH NEXT FROM GetNonNullRows INTO #ColumnName, #ColumnCount
WHILE ##FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
SET #sql = 'SELECT st.UniqueId FROM SomeTable AS st WHERE ' + CONVERT(varchar, #ColumnName) + ' IS NOT NULL'
INSERT INTO #tempTable
EXEC (#sql)
FETCH NEXT FROM GetNonNullRows INTO #ColumnName, #ColumnCount
END
CLOSE GetNonNullRows
DEALLOCATE GetNonNullRows
SELECT * FROM SomeTable AS st1
WHERE st1.UniqueId IN (SELECT Id FROM #tempTable AS tt
GROUP BY Id
HAVING COUNT(Id) = #ColumnCount)
DROP TABLE #tempTable
Let me to explain this a little.
First i create cursor which iterate through all the columns of one table. For each column, I've create sql script to search in table for not null values for selected column. For those rows that satisfies criteria, I take its unique ID and put in temp table, and this job I am using for all columns.
At the end only ID's which count is like columns count are your result set, because only rows that have identical number of appearances like number of columns in table may be rows with all non null values in all columns.

Try this ::
SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE column IS NOT NULL

try this
SELECT *
FROM your_table_name
where coalesce(column_1, column_2, column_3, ...., column_n) is not null

SQL alone cannot express such a concept.
You have to dinamically build the SQL query according to the table definition using some procedural language.
In Oracle you can use the dictionay view USER_TAB_COLUMNS to build the column list.

try using IS NOT NULL
SELECT * FROM table WHERE field_name IS NOT NULL
For more information, check out the mysql manual on working with null values.

Multiple Updates in MySQL

I know that you can insert multiple rows at once, is there a way to update multiple rows at once (as in, in one query) in MySQL?
Edit:
For example I have the following
Name id Col1 Col2
Row1 1 6 1
Row2 2 2 3
Row3 3 9 5
Row4 4 16 8
I want to combine all the following Updates into one query
UPDATE table SET Col1 = 1 WHERE id = 1;
UPDATE table SET Col1 = 2 WHERE id = 2;
UPDATE table SET Col2 = 3 WHERE id = 3;
UPDATE table SET Col1 = 10 WHERE id = 4;
UPDATE table SET Col2 = 12 WHERE id = 4;

Yes, that's possible - you can use INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE.
Using your example:
INSERT INTO table (id,Col1,Col2) VALUES (1,1,1),(2,2,3),(3,9,3),(4,10,12)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE Col1=VALUES(Col1),Col2=VALUES(Col2);

Since you have dynamic values, you need to use an IF or CASE for the columns to be updated. It gets kinda ugly, but it should work.
Using your example, you could do it like:
UPDATE table SET Col1 = CASE id
WHEN 1 THEN 1
WHEN 2 THEN 2
WHEN 4 THEN 10
ELSE Col1
END,
Col2 = CASE id
WHEN 3 THEN 3
WHEN 4 THEN 12
ELSE Col2
END
WHERE id IN (1, 2, 3, 4);

The question is old, yet I'd like to extend the topic with another answer.
My point is, the easiest way to achieve it is just to wrap multiple queries with a transaction. The accepted answer INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE is a nice hack, but one should be aware of its drawbacks and limitations:
As being said, if you happen to launch the query with rows whose primary keys don't exist in the table, the query inserts new "half-baked" records. Probably it's not what you want
If you have a table with a not null field without default value and don't want to touch this field in the query, you'll get "Field 'fieldname' doesn't have a default value" MySQL warning even if you don't insert a single row at all. It will get you into trouble, if you decide to be strict and turn mysql warnings into runtime exceptions in your app.
I made some performance tests for three of suggested variants, including the INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE variant, a variant with "case / when / then" clause and a naive approach with transaction. You may get the python code and results here. The overall conclusion is that the variant with case statement turns out to be twice as fast as two other variants, but it's quite hard to write correct and injection-safe code for it, so I personally stick to the simplest approach: using transactions.
Edit: Findings of Dakusan prove that my performance estimations are not quite valid. Please see this answer for another, more elaborate research.

Not sure why another useful option is not yet mentioned:
UPDATE my_table m
JOIN (
SELECT 1 as id, 10 as _col1, 20 as _col2
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 5, 10
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 15, 30
) vals ON m.id = vals.id
SET col1 = _col1, col2 = _col2;

All of the following applies to InnoDB.
I feel knowing the speeds of the 3 different methods is important.
There are 3 methods:
INSERT: INSERT with ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
TRANSACTION: Where you do an update for each record within a transaction
CASE: In which you a case/when for each different record within an UPDATE
I just tested this, and the INSERT method was 6.7x faster for me than the TRANSACTION method. I tried on a set of both 3,000 and 30,000 rows.
The TRANSACTION method still has to run each individually query, which takes time, though it batches the results in memory, or something, while executing. The TRANSACTION method is also pretty expensive in both replication and query logs.
Even worse, the CASE method was 41.1x slower than the INSERT method w/ 30,000 records (6.1x slower than TRANSACTION). And 75x slower in MyISAM. INSERT and CASE methods broke even at ~1,000 records. Even at 100 records, the CASE method is BARELY faster.
So in general, I feel the INSERT method is both best and easiest to use. The queries are smaller and easier to read and only take up 1 query of action. This applies to both InnoDB and MyISAM.
Bonus stuff:
The solution for the INSERT non-default-field problem is to temporarily turn off the relevant SQL modes: SET SESSION sql_mode=REPLACE(REPLACE(##SESSION.sql_mode,"STRICT_TRANS_TABLES",""),"STRICT_ALL_TABLES",""). Make sure to save the sql_mode first if you plan on reverting it.
As for other comments I've seen that say the auto_increment goes up using the INSERT method, this does seem to be the case in InnoDB, but not MyISAM.
Code to run the tests is as follows. It also outputs .SQL files to remove php interpreter overhead
<?php
//Variables
$NumRows=30000;
//These 2 functions need to be filled in
function InitSQL()
{
}
function RunSQLQuery($Q)
{
}
//Run the 3 tests
InitSQL();
for($i=0;$i<3;$i++)
RunTest($i, $NumRows);
function RunTest($TestNum, $NumRows)
{
$TheQueries=Array();
$DoQuery=function($Query) use (&$TheQueries)
{
RunSQLQuery($Query);
$TheQueries[]=$Query;
};
$TableName='Test';
$DoQuery('DROP TABLE IF EXISTS '.$TableName);
$DoQuery('CREATE TABLE '.$TableName.' (i1 int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, i2 int NOT NULL, primary key (i1)) ENGINE=InnoDB');
$DoQuery('INSERT INTO '.$TableName.' (i2) VALUES ('.implode('), (', range(2, $NumRows+1)).')');
if($TestNum==0)
{
$TestName='Transaction';
$Start=microtime(true);
$DoQuery('START TRANSACTION');
for($i=1;$i<=$NumRows;$i++)
$DoQuery('UPDATE '.$TableName.' SET i2='.(($i+5)*1000).' WHERE i1='.$i);
$DoQuery('COMMIT');
}
if($TestNum==1)
{
$TestName='Insert';
$Query=Array();
for($i=1;$i<=$NumRows;$i++)
$Query[]=sprintf("(%d,%d)", $i, (($i+5)*1000));
$Start=microtime(true);
$DoQuery('INSERT INTO '.$TableName.' VALUES '.implode(', ', $Query).' ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE i2=VALUES(i2)');
}
if($TestNum==2)
{
$TestName='Case';
$Query=Array();
for($i=1;$i<=$NumRows;$i++)
$Query[]=sprintf('WHEN %d THEN %d', $i, (($i+5)*1000));
$Start=microtime(true);
$DoQuery("UPDATE $TableName SET i2=CASE i1\n".implode("\n", $Query)."\nEND\nWHERE i1 IN (".implode(',', range(1, $NumRows)).')');
}
print "$TestName: ".(microtime(true)-$Start)."<br>\n";
file_put_contents("./$TestName.sql", implode(";\n", $TheQueries).';');
}

UPDATE table1, table2 SET table1.col1='value', table2.col1='value' WHERE table1.col3='567' AND table2.col6='567'
This should work for ya.
There is a reference in the MySQL manual for multiple tables.

Use a temporary table
// Reorder items
function update_items_tempdb(&$items)
{
shuffle($items);
$table_name = uniqid('tmp_test_');
$sql = "CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE `$table_name` ("
." `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT"
.", `position` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL"
.", PRIMARY KEY (`id`)"
.") ENGINE = MEMORY";
query($sql);
$i = 0;
$sql = '';
foreach ($items as &$item)
{
$item->position = $i++;
$sql .= ($sql ? ', ' : '')."({$item->id}, {$item->position})";
}
if ($sql)
{
query("INSERT INTO `$table_name` (id, position) VALUES $sql");
$sql = "UPDATE `test`, `$table_name` SET `test`.position = `$table_name`.position"
." WHERE `$table_name`.id = `test`.id";
query($sql);
}
query("DROP TABLE `$table_name`");
}

Why does no one mention multiple statements in one query?
In php, you use multi_query method of mysqli instance.
From the php manual
MySQL optionally allows having multiple statements in one statement string. Sending multiple statements at once reduces client-server round trips but requires special handling.
Here is the result comparing to other 3 methods in update 30,000 raw. Code can be found here which is based on answer from #Dakusan
Transaction: 5.5194580554962
Insert: 0.20669293403625
Case: 16.474853992462
Multi: 0.0412278175354
As you can see, multiple statements query is more efficient than the highest answer.
If you get error message like this:
PHP Warning: Error while sending SET_OPTION packet
You may need to increase the max_allowed_packet in mysql config file which in my machine is /etc/mysql/my.cnf and then restart mysqld.

There is a setting you can alter called 'multi statement' that disables MySQL's 'safety mechanism' implemented to prevent (more than one) injection command. Typical to MySQL's 'brilliant' implementation, it also prevents user from doing efficient queries.
Here (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/mysql-set-server-option.html) is some info on the C implementation of the setting.
If you're using PHP, you can use mysqli to do multi statements (I think php has shipped with mysqli for a while now)
$con = new mysqli('localhost','user1','password','my_database');
$query = "Update MyTable SET col1='some value' WHERE id=1 LIMIT 1;";
$query .= "UPDATE MyTable SET col1='other value' WHERE id=2 LIMIT 1;";
//etc
$con->multi_query($query);
$con->close();
Hope that helps.

You can alias the same table to give you the id's you want to insert by (if you are doing a row-by-row update:
UPDATE table1 tab1, table1 tab2 -- alias references the same table
SET
col1 = 1
,col2 = 2
. . .
WHERE
tab1.id = tab2.id;
Additionally, It should seem obvious that you can also update from other tables as well. In this case, the update doubles as a "SELECT" statement, giving you the data from the table you are specifying. You are explicitly stating in your query the update values so, the second table is unaffected.

You may also be interested in using joins on updates, which is possible as well.
Update someTable Set someValue = 4 From someTable s Inner Join anotherTable a on s.id = a.id Where a.id = 4
-- Only updates someValue in someTable who has a foreign key on anotherTable with a value of 4.
Edit: If the values you are updating aren't coming from somewhere else in the database, you'll need to issue multiple update queries.

No-one has yet mentioned what for me would be a much easier way to do this - Use a SQL editor that allows you to execute multiple individual queries. This screenshot is from Sequel Ace, I'd assume that Sequel Pro and probably other editors have similar functionality. (This of course assumes you only need to run this as a one-off thing rather than as an integrated part of your app/site).

And now the easy way
update my_table m, -- let create a temp table with populated values
(select 1 as id, 20 as value union -- this part will be generated
select 2 as id, 30 as value union -- using a backend code
-- for loop
select N as id, X as value
) t
set m.value = t.value where t.id=m.id -- now update by join - quick

Yes ..it is possible using INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE sql statement..
syntax:
INSERT INTO table_name (a,b,c) VALUES (1,2,3),(4,5,6)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE a=VALUES(a),b=VALUES(b),c=VALUES(c)

use
REPLACE INTO`table` VALUES (`id`,`col1`,`col2`) VALUES
(1,6,1),(2,2,3),(3,9,5),(4,16,8);
Please note:
id has to be a primary unique key
if you use foreign keys to
reference the table, REPLACE deletes then inserts, so this might
cause an error

I took the answer from #newtover and extended it using the new json_table function in MySql 8. This allows you to create a stored procedure to handle the workload rather than building your own SQL text in code:
drop table if exists `test`;
create table `test` (
`Id` int,
`Number` int,
PRIMARY KEY (`Id`)
);
insert into test (Id, Number) values (1, 1), (2, 2);
DROP procedure IF EXISTS `Test`;
DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE `Test`(
p_json json
)
BEGIN
update test s
join json_table(p_json, '$[*]' columns(`id` int path '$.id', `number` int path '$.number')) v
on s.Id=v.id set s.Number=v.number;
END$$
DELIMITER ;
call `Test`('[{"id": 1, "number": 10}, {"id": 2, "number": 20}]');
select * from test;
drop table if exists `test`;
It's a few ms slower than pure SQL but I'm happy to take the hit rather than generate the sql text in code. Not sure how performant it is with huge recordsets (the JSON object has a max size of 1Gb) but I use it all the time when updating 10k rows at a time.

The following will update all rows in one table
Update Table Set
Column1 = 'New Value'
The next one will update all rows where the value of Column2 is more than 5
Update Table Set
Column1 = 'New Value'
Where
Column2 > 5
There is all Unkwntech's example of updating more than one table
UPDATE table1, table2 SET
table1.col1 = 'value',
table2.col1 = 'value'
WHERE
table1.col3 = '567'
AND table2.col6='567'

UPDATE tableName SET col1='000' WHERE id='3' OR id='5'
This should achieve what you'r looking for. Just add more id's. I have tested it.

UPDATE `your_table` SET
`something` = IF(`id`="1","new_value1",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="1", "nv1",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="2","new_value2",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="2", "nv2",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="4","new_value3",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="4", "nv3",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="6","new_value4",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="6", "nv4",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="3","new_value5",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="3", "nv5",`smth2`),
`something` = IF(`id`="5","new_value6",`something`), `smth2` = IF(`id`="5", "nv6",`smth2`)
// You just building it in php like
$q = 'UPDATE `your_table` SET ';
foreach($data as $dat){
$q .= '
`something` = IF(`id`="'.$dat->id.'","'.$dat->value.'",`something`),
`smth2` = IF(`id`="'.$dat->id.'", "'.$dat->value2.'",`smth2`),';
}
$q = substr($q,0,-1);
So you can update hole table with one query