MySql How to set a local variable in an update statement (Syntax?)

Question

How can I set a variable while doing an Update statement? I can\'t seem to figure out the syntax.

So I want something like this below but it\'s saying the syntax is

Answer 1

I have used php or coldfusion to do something like this, (php example)

function something($param){

   $localVarCleaned = mysql_real_escape_string($param);

   mysql_query("
   UPDATE tablename
   SET col = ".$localVarCleaned."
   ");
}