need help about database query builder

If you are:

• Using Active Record
  
• Updating a specific user and know their user_id
  

Then you could try something like this:

Code:

$newTotalPoints = 123456;

$qry = $this->db->select('totalPoints')->get_where('points',array('user_id'=>$user_id));

if( $qry->num_rows() ) {

   $currentTotalPoints = $qry->row_array()['totalPoints'];

   if( $newTotalPoints > $currentTotalPoints ) {

       $this->db->where('user_id',$user_id)->update('points',array('totalPoints'=>$newTotalPoints));

   } else if( $newTotalPoints < $currentTotalPoints ) {

       $this->db->where('user_id',$user_id)->update('points',array('totalPoints'=>$newTotalPoints+$currentTotalPoints));

   }

}