Efficiently send multiple mysqli queries from php - php

Question

I'm currently trying to create a logparser for Call of Duty 4. The parser itself is in php and reads through every line of the logfile for a specific server, and writes all the statistics to a database with mysqli. The databases are already in place and I'm fairly certain (with my limited experience) that they're well-organized. However, I'm not sure in what way I should send the update/insert queries to the database, or rather, which way is optimal.
My databases are structured as follows
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `servers`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `servers` (
`server_id` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`servernr` smallint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`name` varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
`gametype` varchar(8) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`server_id`),
UNIQUE KEY (`servernr`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `players`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `players` (
`player_id` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`guid` varchar(8) NOT NULL default '0',
`fixed_name` varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
`hide` smallint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`player_id`),
UNIQUE KEY (`guid`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `playerstats`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `playerstats` (
`pid` mediumint(9) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`guid` varchar(8) NOT NULL default '0',
`servernr` smallint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`kills` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`deaths` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
# And more stats...
PRIMARY KEY (`pid`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
In short, servers and players contain unique entities, and they are combined in playerstats (i.e. statistics for a player in a specific server). In addition to the stats, they are also given a player id (pid) for use in later databases. Similarly, the database contains the tables weapons (unique weapons) and weaponstats (statistics for a weapon in a server), attachments and attachstats, and maps and mapstats. Once I get all of this working, I would like to implement more relations between these stats (i.e. a player's stats for a specific weapon in a specific server, using pid and wid).
The PHP parser copies the log of each server (there are 6 atm) over http and then reads through them every 5 minutes (I'm not too sure on that yet). One can assume that during this parsing, every table has to be queried (either with UPDATE or INSERT) at least once (and probably alot more). Right now, I have a number of options on how to send queries (that I know of):
1: Use regular queries, i.e.
$statdb = new mysqli($sqlserver,$user,$pw, $db);
foreach( $playerlist as $guid => $data ){
$query = 'INSERT INTO `playerstats`
VALUES (NULL, '$guid', $servernr, $data[0], $data[1])';
$statdb->query($query);
}
2: Use multi query
$statdb = new mysqli($sqlserver,$user,$pw, $db);
foreach( $playerlist as $guid => $data ){
$query = "INSERT INTO `playerstats`
VALUES (NULL, '$guid', $servernr, $data[0], $data[1]);";
$totalquery .= $query;
}
$statdb->multi_query($totalquery);
3: Use prepared statements; I haven't actually tried this yet. It seems like a good idea, but then I have to make a prepared statement for every table (I think). Will that even be possible, and if so, will it be efficient?
4: As you might be able to see from the aforementioned code, I initially count all the statistics for each player,weapon,map, etc. into an array. Once the parser has read through the entire file, it sends a query with those accumulated stats to the mysql server. However, I have also seen (more often then not) in other logparsers, that queries are being sent whenever a new line of the logfile has been parsed, so something like:
UPDATE playerstats
SET kills = kills+1
WHERE guid = $guid
It doesn't seem very efficient to me, but then again I'm just starting out with both php and sql so what do I know :>
So, in short; what would be the most efficient way to query the database, considering that the logparser reads through every line one by one? Of course, any other advice or suggestion is always welcome.

Answer 1

.5. create a single multi-insert query using mysql's support for the queries like
INSERT INTO table (fields) VALUES(data),VALUES(data)...
It seems most efficient of them all, including prepared statements

Answer 2

The most efficient way to me would be to scan the server every so often, once every 5 minutes or so, then scan the list of stats into an array (e.g. in 5 mins 38 people have been on the server so you have an array of 38 IDs, each with the accumulated stats changes of those 38 IDs that need to be updated in the server). Run one query to check to see if a user has an existing ID in stats, and then 2 more queries, one to create new users (multi query insert) and one to update users (single query with CASE update). That limits you to 3 queries every 5 minutes.