Swapping column values in MySQL

You could take the sum and subtract the opposing value using X and Y

UPDATE swaptest SET X=X+Y,Y=X-Y,X=X-Y;

Here is a sample test (and it works with negative numbers)

mysql> use test
Database changed
mysql> drop table if exists swaptest;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.03 sec)

mysql> create table swaptest (X int,Y int);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.12 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO swaptest VALUES (1,2),(3,4),(-5,-8),(-13,27);
Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.08 sec)
Records: 4  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> SELECT * FROM swaptest;
+------+------+
| X    | Y    |
+------+------+
|    1 |    2 |
|    3 |    4 |
|   -5 |   -8 |
|  -13 |   27 |
+------+------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

Here is the swap being performed

mysql> UPDATE swaptest SET X=X+Y,Y=X-Y,X=X-Y;
Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.07 sec)
Rows matched: 4  Changed: 4  Warnings: 0

mysql> SELECT * FROM swaptest;
+------+------+
| X    | Y    |
+------+------+
|    2 |    1 |
|    4 |    3 |
|   -8 |   -5 |
|   27 |  -13 |
+------+------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

Give it a Try !!!

I just had to deal with the same and I'll summarize my findings.

1. The UPDATE table SET X=Y, Y=X approach obviously doesn't work, as it'll just set both values to Y.

2. Here's a method that uses a temporary variable. Thanks to Antony from the comments of http://beerpla.net/2009/02/17/swapping-column-values-in-mysql/ for the "IS NOT NULL" tweak. Without it, the query works unpredictably. See the table schema at the end of the post. This method doesn't swap the values if one of them is NULL. Use method #3 that doesn't have this limitation.

   UPDATE swap_test SET x=y, y=@temp WHERE (@temp:=x) IS NOT NULL;

3. This method was offered by Dipin in, yet again, the comments of http://beerpla.net/2009/02/17/swapping-column-values-in-mysql/. I think it’s the most elegant and clean solution. It works with both NULL and non-NULL values.

   UPDATE swap_test SET x=(@temp:=x), x = y, y = @temp;

4. Another approach I came up with that seems to work:

   UPDATE swap_test s1, swap_test s2 SET s1.x=s1.y, s1.y=s2.x WHERE s1.id=s2.id;

Essentially, the 1st table is the one getting updated and the 2nd one is used to pull the old data from.
Note that this approach requires a primary key to be present.

This is my test schema:

CREATE TABLE `swap_test` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `x` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `y` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

INSERT INTO `swap_test` VALUES ('1', 'a', '10');
INSERT INTO `swap_test` VALUES ('2', NULL, '20');
INSERT INTO `swap_test` VALUES ('3', 'c', NULL);