Question

I want to update two tables at once. The code below seems to work fine. However, in some cases, there is no entry in bidGroups which means the entire statement would fail. How can I adjust it so it updates the first bit (watchedItems) and does not try the second part if watchedItems.bidGroupID IS NULL

UPDATE watchedItems, bidGroups 
SET watchedItems.won=1, bidGroups.bidGroupQty=bidGroups.bidGroupQty-1 
WHERE watchedItems.id=2 
AND watchedItems.aid=200618152822 
AND bidGroups.bidGroupID=watchedItems.bidGroupID 
AND bidGroups.id=2;

I tried this, but the syntax is wrong..

UPDATE  watchedItems, bidGroups 
SET watchedItems.won=1, 
CASE WHEN watchedItems.bidGroupID IS NOT NULL THEN bidGroups.bidGroupQty=bidGroups.bidGroupQty-1 
ELSE END
WHERE watchedItems.id=2 
AND watchedItems.aid=200618152822 
AND bidGroups.bidGroupID=watchedItems.bidGroupID 
AND bidGroups.id=2

Answer 1

Try LEFT JOIN this way:

UPDATE watchedItems 
LEFT JOIN bidGroups ON watchedItems.bidGroupID = bidGroups.bidGroupID AND bidGroups.id=2
SET watchedItems.won=1, bidGroups.bidGroupQty=bidGroups.bidGroupQty-1 
WHERE watchedItems.id=2 
AND watchedItems.aid=200618152822;

……