Question

Is it possible to update existing data and save new data at the same time without having to loop through the array? I would like the array with the id to update and the array without an id to create a new entry. See the example below. Thank you for your help.

[Workload] => Array
    (
        [0] => Array
            (
                [phase_count] => 1
                [id] => 17
                [value] => {"phases":[{"rep_range":"20-30","rep_set_count":"1"}]}
                [user_id] => 1
            )

        [4] => Array
            (
                [phase_count] => 1
                [value] => {"phases":[{"rep_range":"20-30","rep_set_count":"1"}]}
                [user_id] => 1
            )
);

and then this

$this->Workload->saveAll($this->data['Workload']);

EDIT ======================================

Here is the code that actually saves this array

   if($this->data){
        array_walk($this->data['Workload'], function (&$value,$index){
            // This will need to be changed once users are setup
            if(empty($value['user_id'])){
                $value['user_id'] = 1;
            }
            $value['value'] = json_encode($value['value']);
        });
        debug($this->data);
        $this->Workload->saveAll($this->data['Workload']);

Answer 1

In fact, I do exactly that in one of my apps. If there is no ‘id’ a table entry will be created. If the ‘id’ is specified, the record will be updated.