Help with a query

[weirdbeardmt]

I'm running a Mambo CMS on a client site. I have setup a load of content pages, but at the moment only a few of them have content in. I need to copy the content from these pages to the others.

For example:

Category 1
- Software
- Training
- Support

Category 2
- Software
- Training
- Support

Category 3
- Software 
- Training
- Support

where Software, Training etc. are the "title" field (in the db). All of this content is stored in one table called "content".

In total there's 4 catgories and in each 7 of those pages. Currently category has the content pages filled in. I simply need to copy the content to the other categories. I would do some UPDATE queries, but that'll take forever to do, especially as in each row, there are about 15 cells, and I only want to copy certain cells over (i.e. I need to preserve various IDs and so on).

A query I might run would be:

UPDATE content SET text='blah blah blah blah' WHERE title='Software' 

having copied the text from my original Software into the text='blah'. But that'd mean I'd need to do it say 10 times for each of the 7 content pages. Actually I suppose that would only be 7 queries.

Could I do something like:

UPDATE content SET text={content title id},images={content images id},..., WHERE title='Software' 

if I found the ID of the row that holds the content of the row I want to copy over? I could stick the titles and ID into an array and just loop through it easy enough.

I haven't played with MySQL for a while and I'm a little rusty... Muchos thanks

[r937]

INSERT INTO Content (columns)
SELECT columns FROM Content WHERE id = 937

[weirdbeardmt]

I don't want to do an INSERT because the rows are already there (and linked to the menu system which I don't want to redo). Mambo actually has a copy option I've just found.

[r937]

INSERT/SELECT copies from one set of rows to another, which is exactly what you asked for

i was going to suggest looking for a "copy" function in the cms but that would've been too simple, eh

[weirdbeardmt]

Well I won't be using the copy function because I'd still have to do each one manually and then reconfigure the menu system, I was just pointing out it is a handy little feature if you haven't already spent hours setting up the content pages and menu system.

And what I meant was copy the CONTENT only to rows that already exist. Sorry that wasn't clear.

[r937]

ah, yes, "to rows that already exist" makes a difference

what version of mysql is this on?

there is multi-table update syntax but it requires 4.0+

it's in the manual under UPDATE

if you need help interpreting it to your situation, let me know the table and column names

[weirdbeardmt]

4.0.22-standard

I'll check out the manual, ta.