Update with SELECT and group without GROUP BY - mysql

Question

I have a table like this (MySQL 5.0.x, MyISAM):
response{id, title, status, ...} (status: 1 new, 3 multi)
I would like to update the status from new (status=1) to multi (status=3) of all the responses if at least 20 have the same title.
I have this one, but it does not work :
UPDATE response SET status = 3 WHERE status = 1 AND title IN (
SELECT title FROM (
SELECT DISTINCT(r.title) FROM response r WHERE EXISTS (
SELECT 1 FROM response spam WHERE spam.title = r.title LIMIT 20, 1)
)
as u)
Please note:
I do the nested select to avoid the famous You can't specify target table 'response' for update in FROM clause
I cannot use GROUP BY for performance reasons. The query cost with a solution using LIMIT is way better (but it is less readable).
EDIT:
It is possible to do SELECT FROM an UPDATE target in MySQL. See solution here
The issue is on the data selected which is totaly wrong.
The only solution I found which works is with a GROUP BY:
UPDATE response SET status = 3
WHERE status = 1 AND title IN (SELECT title
FROM (SELECT title
FROM response
GROUP BY title
HAVING COUNT(1) >= 20)
as derived_response)
Thanks for your help! :)

Answer 1

MySQL doesn't like it when you try to UPDATE and SELECT from the same table in one query. It has to do with locking priorities, etc.
Here's how I would solve this problem:
SELECT CONCAT('UPDATE response SET status = 3 ',
'WHERE status = 1 AND title = ', QUOTE(title), ';') AS sql
FROM response
GROUP BY title
HAVING COUNT(*) >= 20;
This query produces a series of UPDATE statements, with the quoted titles that deserve to be updated embedded. Capture the result and run it as an SQL script.
I understand that GROUP BY in MySQL often incurs a temporary table, and this can be costly. But is that a deal-breaker? How frequently do you need to run this query? Besides, any other solutions are likely to require a temporary table too.
I can think of one way to solve this problem without using GROUP BY:
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE titlecount (c INTEGER, title VARCHAR(100) PRIMARY KEY);
INSERT INTO titlecount (c, title)
SELECT 1, title FROM response
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE c = c+1;
UPDATE response JOIN titlecount USING (title)
SET response.status = 3
WHERE response.status = 1 AND titlecount.c >= 20;
But this also uses a temporary table, which is why you try to avoid using GROUP BY in the first place.

Answer 2

I would write something straightforward like below
UPDATE `response`, (
SELECT title, count(title) as count from `response`
WHERE status = 1
GROUP BY title
) AS tmp
SET response.status = 3
WHERE status = 1 AND response.title = tmp.title AND count >= 20;
Is using GROUP BY really that slow ? The solution you tried to implement looks like requesting again and again on the same table and should be way slower than using GROUP BY if it worked.

Answer 3

This is a funny peculiarity with MySQL - I can't think of a way to do it in a single statement (GROUP BY or no GROUP BY).
You could select the appropriate response rows into a temporary table first then do the update by selecting from that temp table.

Answer 4

you'll have to use a temporary table:
create temporary table r_update (title varchar(10));
insert r_update
select title
from response
group
by title
having count(*) < 20;
update response r
left outer
join r_update ru
on ru.title = r.title
set status = case when ru.title is null then 3 else 1;