A relational database management system uses SQL MERGE
(upsert) statements to INSERT
new records or UPDATE
existing records depending on whether or not a condition matches. It was officially introduced in the SQL:2008 standard.
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MERGE INTO table_name USING table_reference ON (condition) WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET column1 = value1 [, column2 = value2 ...] WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT (column1 [, column2 ...]) VALUES (value1 [, value2 ...
Right join is employed over Target and Source tables. That is, rows present in Source and missed from Target do run the action, the rows missed from Source and present in Target are ignored. If multiple Source rows match a given Target row, error is mandated by SQL-2003.
Database management systems Oracle Database, DB2, and MS SQL support the standard syntax. Some also add non-standard SQL extensions.
Some other database management systems support this, or very similar behavior, through their own, non-standard SQL extensions.
MySQL, for example, supports the use of INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
syntax[1] which can be used to achieve the same effect. It also supports REPLACE INTO
syntax[2], which first deletes the row, if exists, and then inserts the new one.
SQLite's INSERT OR REPLACE INTO
works similarly.
Firebird supports MERGE INTO
though fails at throwing error when multiple Source data. Additionally a single-row version, UPDATE OR INSERT INTO tablename (columns) VALUES (values) [MATCHING (columns)]
, but the latter does not give you the option to take different actions on insert vs. update (e.g. setting a new sequence value only for new rows, not for existing ones.)
IBM DB2 extends syntax with multiple WHEN MATCHED
and WHEN NOT MATCHED
clauses, distinguishing them with ... AND some-condition
guards.
Microsoft SQL extends with supporting guards and also with supporting Left Join via WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE
clauses.
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