Question

Given this type of User table structure where you are storing many User values (such as phone #’s, preferences, contact info) in a table:

Table: User ID | Key | Value

$values = [
    1 => 'A value for key 1',
    2 => 'Hello',
    8 => 'Meow',
]

// Update values
$stmt = $pdo_db->prepare('
    INSERT INTO table (UID, KEY, VALUE)
    VALUES            (:UID, :KEY, :VALUE)
    ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE VALUE = :VALUE');

foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
    $stmt->bindParam(':KEY', $key);
    $stmt->bindParam(':VALUE', $value);
    $stmt->execute();
}

If you have 150 different pairs, thats 150 queries per update. How would I optimize this code? Would making a giant SQL make the work easier on the mysql side? Should I be looking at changing the structure itself?

Answer 1

Take this query as a guide-

INSERT INTO example
  (example_id, name, value, other_value)
VALUES
  (100, 'Name 1', 'Value 1', 'Other 1'),
  (101, 'Name 2', 'Value 2', 'Other 2'),
  (102, 'Name 3', 'Value 3', 'Other 3'),
  (103, 'Name 4', 'Value 4', 'Other 4');

Allows you to insert multiple records at once.

If you know which records are new, it could speed up to separate those into a plain INSERT – mysql has to spend extra time reconciling the ON DUPLICATE... UPDATE otherwise.

Also think about using UPDATE or REPLACE if you’re only updating.