Updating product prices in magento in easier faster way

Product prices can be updated via default import profile though but this is very slow and requires lots of csv fields(besides sku & price) for updating.
Today i am going to talk about updating product prices just by using csv with two fields: sku & price(new) which is very fast enough even for thousands of products.

Steps:

1> Prepare CSV file(prices.csv) with two fields: sku & price and upload in the root of Magento installation.
You can see the snapshot how it should look like:

2> Create a file: update_prices.php in the root of magento installation and paste the following code:

<?php
/**
 * @author      MagePsycho <info@magepsycho.com>
 * @website     http://www.magepsycho.com
 * @category    Export / Import
 */
$mageFilename = 'app/Mage.php';
require_once $mageFilename;
Mage::setIsDeveloperMode(true);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
umask(0);
Mage::app('admin');
Mage::register('isSecureArea', 1);
Mage::app()->setCurrentStore(Mage_Core_Model_App::ADMIN_STORE_ID);
 
set_time_limit(0);
ini_set('memory_limit','1024M');
 
/***************** UTILITY FUNCTIONS ********************/
function _getConnection($type = 'core_read'){
    return Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getConnection($type);
}
 
function _getTableName($tableName){
    return Mage::getSingleton('core/resource')->getTableName($tableName);
}
 
function _getAttributeId($attribute_code = 'price'){
    $connection = _getConnection('core_read');
    $sql = "SELECT attribute_id
                FROM " . _getTableName('eav_attribute') . "
            WHERE
                entity_type_id = ?
                AND attribute_code = ?";
    $entity_type_id = _getEntityTypeId();
    return $connection->fetchOne($sql, array($entity_type_id, $attribute_code));
}
 
function _getEntityTypeId($entity_type_code = 'catalog_product'){
    $connection = _getConnection('core_read');
    $sql        = "SELECT entity_type_id FROM " . _getTableName('eav_entity_type') . " WHERE entity_type_code = ?";
    return $connection->fetchOne($sql, array($entity_type_code));
}
 
function _getIdFromSku($sku){
    $connection = _getConnection('core_read');
    $sql        = "SELECT entity_id FROM " . _getTableName('catalog_product_entity') . " WHERE sku = ?";
    return $connection->fetchOne($sql, array($sku));
 
}
 
function _checkIfSkuExists($sku){
    $connection = _getConnection('core_read');
    $sql        = "SELECT COUNT(*) AS count_no FROM " . _getTableName('catalog_product_entity') . " WHERE sku = ?";
    $count      = $connection->fetchOne($sql, array($sku));
    if($count > 0){
        return true;
    }else{
        return false;
    }
}
 
function _updatePrices($data){
    $connection     = _getConnection('core_write');
    $sku            = $data[0];
    $newPrice       = $data[1];
    $productId      = _getIdFromSku($sku);
    $attributeId    = _getAttributeId();
 
    $sql = "UPDATE " . _getTableName('catalog_product_entity_decimal') . " cped
                SET  cped.value = ?
            WHERE  cped.attribute_id = ?
            AND cped.entity_id = ?";
    $connection->query($sql, array($newPrice, $attributeId, $productId));
}
/***************** UTILITY FUNCTIONS ********************/
 
$csv                = new Varien_File_Csv();
$data               = $csv->getData('prices.csv'); //path to csv
array_shift($data);
 
$message = '';
$count   = 1;
foreach($data as $_data){
    if(_checkIfSkuExists($_data[0])){
        try{
            _updatePrices($_data);
            $message .= $count . '> Success:: While Updating Price (' . $_data[1] . ') of Sku (' . $_data[0] . '). <br />';
 
        }catch(Exception $e){
            $message .=  $count .'> Error:: While Upating  Price (' . $_data[1] . ') of Sku (' . $_data[0] . ') => '.$e->getMessage().'<br />';
        }
    }else{
        $message .=  $count .'> Error:: Product with Sku (' . $_data[0] . ') does\'t exist.<br />';
    }
    $count++;
}
echo $message;

3> Open your browser and run the following url:

http://www.yourdomain.com/update_prices.php

You will see how fast the prices of corresponding skus are updated.