[database] SQLite UPSERT / UPDATE OR INSERT

Option 1: Insert -> Update

If you like to avoid both changes()=0 and INSERT OR IGNORE even if you cannot afford deleting the row - You can use this logic;

First, insert (if not exists) and then update by filtering with the unique key.

Example

-- Table structure
CREATE TABLE players (
    id        INTEGER       PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
    user_name VARCHAR (255) NOT NULL
                            UNIQUE,
    age       INTEGER       NOT NULL
);

-- Insert if NOT exists
INSERT INTO players (user_name, age)
SELECT 'johnny', 20
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM players WHERE user_name='johnny' AND age=20);

-- Update (will affect row, only if found)
-- no point to update user_name to 'johnny' since it's unique, and we filter by it as well
UPDATE players 
SET age=20 
WHERE user_name='johnny';

Regarding Triggers

Notice: I haven't tested it to see the which triggers are being called, but I assume the following:

if row does not exists

  • BEFORE INSERT
  • INSERT using INSTEAD OF
  • AFTER INSERT
  • BEFORE UPDATE
  • UPDATE using INSTEAD OF
  • AFTER UPDATE

if row does exists

  • BEFORE UPDATE
  • UPDATE using INSTEAD OF
  • AFTER UPDATE

Option 2: Insert or replace - keep your own ID

in this way you can have a single SQL command

-- Table structure
CREATE TABLE players (
    id        INTEGER       PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
    user_name VARCHAR (255) NOT NULL
                            UNIQUE,
    age       INTEGER       NOT NULL
);

-- Single command to insert or update
INSERT OR REPLACE INTO players 
(id, user_name, age) 
VALUES ((SELECT id from players WHERE user_name='johnny' AND age=20),
        'johnny',
        20);

Edit: added option 2.

Examples related to database

Implement specialization in ER diagram phpMyAdmin - Error > Incorrect format parameter? Authentication plugin 'caching_sha2_password' cannot be loaded Room - Schema export directory is not provided to the annotation processor so we cannot export the schema SQL Query Where Date = Today Minus 7 Days MySQL Error: : 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' SQL Server date format yyyymmdd How to create a foreign key in phpmyadmin WooCommerce: Finding the products in database TypeError: tuple indices must be integers, not str

Examples related to sqlite

getting " (1) no such column: _id10 " error Laravel: PDOException: could not find driver auto create database in Entity Framework Core How to open .SQLite files Accessing an SQLite Database in Swift When does SQLiteOpenHelper onCreate() / onUpgrade() run? Attempt to write a readonly database - Django w/ SELinux error Android sqlite how to check if a record exists How can I add the sqlite3 module to Python? "Insert if not exists" statement in SQLite

Examples related to upsert

PostgreSQL INSERT ON CONFLICT UPDATE (upsert) use all excluded values How to UPSERT (MERGE, INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE UPDATE) in PostgreSQL? SQLite UPSERT / UPDATE OR INSERT Insert into a MySQL table or update if exists Postgres: INSERT if does not exist already INSERT IF NOT EXISTS ELSE UPDATE? SQLite "INSERT OR REPLACE INTO" vs. "UPDATE ... WHERE" Insert, on duplicate update in PostgreSQL? How do I UPDATE a row in a table or INSERT it if it doesn't exist? SQLite - UPSERT *not* INSERT or REPLACE