Update records without looping

Unknown

In order to update multiple records, I first need to query, loop through the list, then update one record at a time.  I find this to be extremely slow.

Is there a way to update records directly, like something you can perform in SQL like 
update user set firstname = 'John' where lastname = 'Smith'

Mauro Mequelussi-1595850

Currently it doesn't seem like it, you have to fetch the records then loop through a loop and update individual each iteration of the loop.