UPDATE Statement

UPDATE is a DML statement that modifies rows in a table.

Single-table syntax:

UPDATE [LOW_PRIORITY] [IGNORE] table_reference
    SET assignment_list
    [WHERE where_condition]
    [ORDER BY ...]
    [LIMIT row_count]

value:
    {expr | DEFAULT}

assignment:
    col_name = value

assignment_list:
    assignment [, assignment] ...

Multiple-table syntax:

UPDATE [LOW_PRIORITY] [IGNORE] table_references
    SET assignment_list
    [WHERE where_condition]

CREATE TABLE items (
    id BIGINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    wholesale DECIMAL(6,2) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0.00,
    retail DECIMAL(6,2) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0.00,
    quantity BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
);

mysql> UPDATE items
     > SET retail = retail * 0.9
     > WHERE id IN
     >     (SELECT id FROM items
     >         WHERE retail / wholesale >= 1.3 AND quantity > 100);
ERROR 1093 (HY000): You can't specify target table 'items' for update in FROM clause

UPDATE items,
       (SELECT id FROM items
        WHERE id IN
            (SELECT id FROM items
             WHERE retail / wholesale >= 1.3 AND quantity < 100))
        AS discounted
SET items.retail = items.retail * 0.9
WHERE items.id = discounted.id;