Assign a category to all articles

Question

I have a database of 4000 articles and I need to assign a specific category to all of this articles.

How I can do? If I try by selecting all in the CP and trying to modify them, i get an URI too large error from my webserver.

I also need to assign a single specific author to all 4000 articles.

Answer 1

If you can access the database directly, you could

1. Check for the ID of the category you want to assign
2. Check for the Author ID

Then run the following MySql (on your own risk):

INSERT INTO `#__term_relationships` ( object_id, term_taxonomy_id )  
SELECT ID, 1 FROM `#__posts` WHERE `post_type` = 'post' // where 1 is your desired category ID

UPDATE `#__posts` SET `post_author` = 2 // desired author ID