Question

How do I separate statements in a single MYSQL query?

Is it a semicolon?

I don’t think it matters but I am writing the statements to be invoked by PHP functions

Edit: the problem is that I didn’t seem to understand the UPDATE syntax, that you can execute multiple fields with one UPDATE statement

Answer 1

Using the mysqli_ functions (docs), you can pass multiple queries in the same string using mysqli_multi_query (docs)

Example from the docs:

/* check connection */
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
    printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
    exit();
}

$query  = "SELECT CURRENT_USER();";
$query .= 'UPDATE City SET name = "Boston" WHERE id = 5';

/* execute multi query */
if ($mysqli->multi_query($query)) {
    do {
        /* store first result set */
        if ($result = $mysqli->store_result()) {
            while ($row = $result->fetch_row()) {
                printf("%s\n", $row[0]);
            }
            $result->free();
        }
        /* print divider */
        if ($mysqli->more_results()) {
            printf("-----------------\n");
        }
    } while ($mysqli->next_result());
}

/* close connection */
$mysqli->close();
?>