Question

Can I update two identical tables with one query?

TABLEA
_____________________________
|     id      |   value     |
|_____________|_____________| 
|      1      |      a      | 
|      2      |      b      | 
|      3      |      c      | 
|      4      |      d      | 
|      5      |      e      |    
|_____________|_____________| 

TABLEB
_____________________________
|     id      |   value     |
|_____________|_____________| 
|      1      |      a      | 
|      2      |      b      | 
|      3      |      c      | 
|      4      |      d      | 
|      5      |      e      |    
|_____________|_____________| 

I want to update both tables (SET value = 'z' WHERE id=3) at the same time.
Is this possible?

-Thanks

Answer 1

MySQL supports multiple-table updates using the following syntax:

UPDATE tablea, tableb
SET    tablea.value = 'z', tableb.value = 'z'
WHERE  (tablea.id = tableb.id) AND (tablea.id = '3');

Test case:

CREATE TABLE tablea (id int, value char(1));
CREATE TABLE tableb (id int, value char(1));

INSERT INTO tablea VALUES (1, 'a');
INSERT INTO tablea VALUES (2, 'b');
INSERT INTO tablea VALUES (3, 'c');
INSERT INTO tablea VALUES (4, 'd');
INSERT INTO tablea VALUES (5, 'e');

INSERT INTO tableb VALUES (1, 'a');
INSERT INTO tableb VALUES (2, 'b');
INSERT INTO tableb VALUES (3, 'c');
INSERT INTO tableb VALUES (4, 'd');
INSERT INTO tableb VALUES (5, 'e');

Result:

SELECT * FROM tablea;
+------+-------+
| id   | value |
+------+-------+
|    1 | a     |
|    2 | b     |
|    3 | z     |
|    4 | d     |
|    5 | e     |
+------+-------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

SELECT * FROM tableb;
+------+-------+
| id   | value |
+------+-------+
|    1 | a     |
|    2 | b     |
|    3 | z     |
|    4 | d     |
|    5 | e     |
+------+-------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

---

UPDATE:

If you prefer not to repeat the value you are going to set twice, you may want to use the following trick:

UPDATE tablea, tableb, (SELECT 'z' val) d
SET    tablea.value = d.val, tableb.value = d.val
WHERE  (tablea.id = tableb.id) AND (tablea.id = '3');