Optimize UPDATE statement in MySQL - mysql

In MySQL I have a table with almost 100 columns and 33 000 rows of data stored in it. And i'm trying to run a procedure that will update all the columns in a table or insert new row in a table according to some condition. Something like that:
IF (v_Rows > 0) then
UPDATE tab1 SET
col1 = var1,
col2 = var2,
. . .
col95 = var95
WHERE id = var_id
ELSE
insert into tab1 values
(var1, var2, ... var95)
END IF;
These statements takes too much time to execute. And I'm curious about how such structure can be optimized?


See INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE ...
It uses a unique key to decide whether the row already exists, then...
If it does not exist, it INSERTs;
If it does exist, it updates whatever you specify.
Use col22 = VALUES(col22) to avoid having the 'update' to the var22, which is already provided. See VALUES().
If you have multiple rows to apply at the same time in the same way,
INSERT INTO tbl (col1, ...)
SELECT col1, ... FROM source_tbl ...
ON DUPLICATE KEY col1 = VALUES(col1), ...;

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 CASE to update multiple columns

I would like to update multiple columns in my table using a case statement, but I cannot find how to do this (is this even possible). I came up with the following invalid reference query:
UPDATE tablename SET
CASE name
WHEN 'name1' THEN col1=5,col2=''
WHEN 'name2' THEN col1=3,col2='whatever'
ELSE col1=0,col2=''
END;
Is there any way of achieving the expected result with valid SQL?

UPDATE tablename
SET col1 = CASE WHEN name = 'name1' THEN 5
WHEN name = 'name2' THEN 3
ELSE 0
END
, col2 = CASE WHEN name = 'name1' THEN ''
WHEN name = 'name2' THEN 'whatever'
ELSE ''
END
;

I don't know of any clean way to do what you're asking. An equivalent valid SQL update would be:
UPDATE tablename SET
col1 = CASE name WHEN 'name1' THEN 5 WHEN 'name2' THEN 3 ELSE 0 END,
col2 = CASE name WHEN 'name1' THEN '' WHEN 'name2' THEN 'whatever' ELSE '' END;
Of course this isn't pretty and requires repeating the same cases (e.g. 'name1') multiple times, but I just don't think it's possible any other way.

If name has a unique index and your values are known to exist in the table, you can use this trick:
INSERT INTO tablename (name, col1, col2)
VALUES ('name1', 5, '')
, ('name2', 3, 'whatever')
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
col1 = VALUES(col1)
, col2 = VALUES(col2);
If there are any additional NOT NULL columns without a default value, you'll have to add dummy values for those. Just leave them out of the ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE and they'll be ignored.

You have two options that are covered in the different answers of this question:
UPDATE ... CASE
INSERT INTO ... ON DUPLICATE KEY
I had the following requirement:
bulk update 100000+ records with 4 column values
the source might have records that do not trigger the "ON DUPLICATE KEY" thus just inserting new data instead of just updating. At the same time I do not want these new records.
So there are two bad alternatives:
using UPDATE ... CASE for multiple columns makes this really expensive for the database when updating 100000+ records
using INSERT INTO ... ON DUPLICATE KEY might insert records that I do not want
My solution: Use INSERT INTO ... ON DUPLICATE KEY with dummy data, then delete all records that include column with the UNWANTED_INSERTED_DATA flag
I am inserting one column with UNWANTED_INSERTED_DATA as a flag where I can guarantee these values will never be part of any real data. The remaining columns are updated with the wanted data.
INSERT INTO tablename (name, col1, col2)
VALUES ('name1', 5, 'UNWANTED_INSERTED_DATA')
, ('name2', 3, 'UNWANTED_INSERTED_DATA')
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
name = VALUES(name)
, col1 = VALUES(col1)
; # DO NOT include the UNWANTED_INSERTED_DATA in the update part
The records I want only use update thus never receive the dummy data with UNWANTED_INSERTED_DATA column.
The records I do not want contain the dummy data.
I can then delete all unwanted inserted records with dummy data in one delete query:
DELETE FROM tablename WHERE col2 = 'UNWANTED_INSERTED_DATA'
This is a hacky solution but gets the job done with just two queries in two steps.

MySQL Single Table Scan Update

Is there a way to accomplish a single table scan in MySQL with an UPDATE? The following is a standard example:
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE Column1='SomeValue')
UPDATE Table1 SET (...) WHERE Column1='SomeValue'
ELSE
INSERT INTO Table1 VALUES (...)
This is the ideal situation I'd like to happen in MySQL (But this is MsSQL):
UPDATE user SET (name = 'jesse') WHERE userid ='10001'
IF ##ROWCOUNT=0
INSERT INTO user (name) VALUES('jeeeeee')

It's sort of reversed in MySQL. You perform the insert, and if the key already exists, then update the row:
INSERT INTO Table1 (col1,col2,col3) VALUES (val1,val2,val3)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE col1 = val1, col2 = val2, col3 = val3;
This is predicated on you having a unique key for the table (which you do, right?)

Is it really no solution to update multiple records in MySQL?

I want to do all these update in one statement.
update table set ts=ts_1 where id=1
update table set ts=ts_2 where id=2
...
update table set ts=ts_n where id=n
Is it?

Use this:
UPDATE `table` SET `ts`=CONCAT('ts_', `id`);

Yes you can but that would require a table (if only virtual/temporary), where you's store the id + ts value pairs, and then run an UPDATE with the FROM syntax.
Assuming tmpList is a table with an id and a ts_value column, filled with the pairs of id value, ts value you wish to apply.
UPDATE table, tmpList
SET table.ts = tmpList.ts_value
WHERE table.id = tmpList.id
-- AND table.id IN (1, 2, 3, .. n)
-- above "AND" is only needed if somehow you wish to limit it, i.e
-- if tmpTbl has more idsthan you wish to update
A possibly table-less (but similar) approach would involve a CASE statement, as in:
UPDATE table
SET ts = CASE id
WHEN 1 THEN 'ts_1'
WHEN 2 THEN 'ts_2'
-- ..
WHEN n THEN 'ts_n'
END
WHERE id in (1, 2, ... n) -- here this is necessary I believe

Well, without knowing what data, I'm not sure whether the answer is yes or no.
It certainly is possible to update multiple rows at once:
update table table1 set field1='value' where field2='bar'
This will update every row in table2 whose field2 value is 'bar'.
update table1 set field1='value' where field2 in (1, 2, 3, 4)
This will update every row in the table whose field2 value is 1, 2, 3 or 4.
update table1 set field1='value' where field2 > 5
This will update every row in the table whose field2 value is greater than 5.
update table1 set field1=concat('value', id)
This will update every row in the table, setting the field1 value to 'value' plus the value of that row's id field.

You could do it with a case statement, but it wouldn't be pretty:
UPDATE table
SET ts = CASE id WHEN 1 THEN ts_1 WHEN 2 THEN ts_2 ... WHEN n THEN ts_n END

I think that you should expand the context of the problem. Why do you want/need all the updates to be done in one statement? What benefit does that give you? Perhaps there's another way to get that benefit.
Presumably you are interacting with sql via some code, so certainly you can simply make sure that the three updates all happen atomically by creating a function that performs all three of the updates.
e.g. pseudocode:
function update_all_three(val){
// all the updates in one function
}
The difference between a single function update and some kind of update that performs multiple updates at once is probably not a very useful distinction.

generate the statements:
select concat('update table set ts = ts_', id, ' where id = ', id, '; ')
from table
or generate the case conditions, then connect it to your update statement:
select concat('when ', id, ' then ts_', id) from table

You can use INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE. See this quesion: Multiple Updates in MySQL

ts_1, ts_2, ts_3, etc. are different fields on the same table? There's no way to do that with a single statement.

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