Using WITH in sql query I am trying to replace # with numbers, but the order by is being ignored, and I was told to move the subquery usingWITH or adding a limit to the order by, I tried the latter but it didn't work, and I am not sure how to use WITH in the following query.

update items
join (select id, @num := @num + 1 as num
    from items, (select @num := 0) items
     where parent_id =  159133    order by name) items2
on items2.id = items.id
set items.description = replace(items.description, '#' COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci, cast(num as char(10))) 
WHERE parent_id = 159133 and type='photo';
Your query can be written without subqueries/joins like that:

UPDATE items
   SET description = replace(description, '#', cast(@num:=@num+1 as char(10))) 
 WHERE parent_id = 159133 
   AND type='photo'
   AND @num := 1       -- @num initialization by Akina
 ORDER BY name ASC
;