Whoever made the decision that MYSQL UPDATE’s can only be done one row at a time needs shooting. With INSERT you can insert multiple rows, why not the same for UPDATE?
As you may guess I’m trying to optimise some updates, currently 128 separate ones, into something a lot smaller. I think I can do it in under 10, which is a big improvement. But still not as small as I would like.
[update] and done – no matter how many updates need doing the script will now do it in 10!