UPSERT

Function

UPSERT inserts rows into a table. When a row duplicates an existing primary key or unique key value, the row will be ignored or updated.

The UPSERT syntax is supported only in 8.1.1 and later.

Precautions

When UPSERT is executed on column-store tables, you are advised to enable the DELTA table. Enabling the DELTA table can effectively prevent small CUs from being generated during UPSERT execution. (A large number of small CUs may cause space expansion and poor query performance.)
In scenarios where UPSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations are concurrently performed on column-store tables, these operations cannot be concurrently performed because they need to wait for the CU lock. This problem cannot be solved even if the DELTA table is enabled.
Only users with the INSERT or UPDATE permission on a table can run the UPSERT statement to insert data to or update data in the table.
The UPSERT statement of updating data upon conflict can be executed only when the target table contains a primary key or unique index.
The UPSERT statement of updating data upon conflict cannot be executed if no unique indexes are available. You can execute the statement only after the indexes are rebuilt.
A distributed deadlock may occur, resulting in query hanging.
For example, multiple UPSERT statements are executed in batches in a transaction or through JDBC (setAutoCommit(false)). Multiple similar tasks are executed at the same time.

Possible result: The update sequences of different threads may vary depending on nodes. As a result, a deadlock may occur when the same row is concurrently updated.

Solution:
1. Decrease the value of the GUC parameter lockwait_timeout. The default value is 20 minutes. A distributed deadlock error will be reported after waiting for the value of lockwait_timeout. You can decrease the value of this parameter to reduce the service waiting time caused by a deadlock.
2. Ensure that data with the same primary key is imported from only one database connection to the database. UPSERT statements can be executed concurrently.
3. Only one UPSERT statement is executed in each transaction. UPSERT statements can be executed concurrently.
4. Multiple UPSERT statements are executed in a single thread. UPSERT statements cannot be executed concurrently.
In the preceding solution, method 1 can only reduce the waiting time but cannot solve the deadlock problem. If there are UPSERT statements in the service, you are advised to decrease the value of this parameter. Methods 2, 3, and 4 can solve the deadlock problem, but method 2 is recommended because its performance is better than another two methods.

The distribution column cannot be updated (except when the distribution key is the same as the updated value, the distribution column can be updated).

      
           CREATE TABLE t1(dist_key int PRIMARY KEY, a int, b int);
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,2,3) ON CONFLICT(dist_key) DO UPDATE SET dist_key = EXCLUDED.dist_key, a = EXCLUDED.a + 1;
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,2,3) ON CONFLICT(dist_key) DO UPDATE SET dist_key = dist_key, a = EXCLUDED.a + 1;

The UPSERT statement cannot be executed on the target table that contains a trigger (with the INSERT or UPDATE trigger event).
The UPSERT statement is not supported for updatable views.
The UPDATE clause, the WHERE clause of UPDATE, and the index condition expression should not contain functions that cannot be pushed down.
Unique indexes cannot be deferred.
When performing the update operation of UPSERT using INSERT INTO SELECT, pay attention to the query result sequence of SELECT. In a distributed environment, if the ORDER BY statement is not used, the sequence of returned results may be different each time the same SELECT statement is executed. As a result, the execution result of the UPSERT statement does not meet the expectation.

Multiple updates are not supported. If multiple groups of data conflict, an error is reported (except when the query plan is a PGXC plan).

      
       
         
         
           CREATE TABLE t1(id int PRIMARY KEY, a int, b int);
-- Use the stream query plan:
EXPLAIN (COSTS OFF) INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,2,3),(1,5,6) ON CONFLICT(id) DO UPDATE SET a = EXCLUDED.a + 1;
                   QUERY PLAN
------------------------------------------------
  id |                operation
 ----+-----------------------------------------
   1 | ->  Streaming (type: GATHER)
   2 |    ->  Insert on t1
   3 |       ->  Streaming(type: REDISTRIBUTE)
   4 |          ->  Values Scan on "*VALUES*"
 Predicate Information (identified by plan id)
 ---------------------------------------------
   2 --Insert on t1
         Conflict Resolution: UPDATE
         Conflict Arbiter Indexes: t1_pkey
   ====== Query Summary =====
 ------------------------------
 System available mem: 819200KB
 Query Max mem: 819200KB
 Query estimated mem: 3104KB
(18 rows)
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,2,3),(1,5,6) ON CONFLICT(id) DO UPDATE SET a = EXCLUDED.a + 1;
ERROR:  INSERT ON CONFLICT DO UPDATE command cannot affect row a second time
HINT:  Ensure that no rows proposed for insertion within the same command have duplicate constrained values.
-- Disable the stream plan and generate a PGXC plan:
set enable_stream_operator = off;
EXPLAIN (COSTS OFF) INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,2,3),(1,5,6) ON CONFLICT(id) DO UPDATE SET a = EXCLUDED.a + 1;
                  QUERY PLAN
-----------------------------------------------
  id |            operation
 ----+----------------------------------
   1 | ->  Insert on t1
   2 |    ->  Values Scan on "*VALUES*"
 Predicate Information (identified by plan id)
 ---------------------------------------------
   1 --Insert on t1
         Conflict Resolution: UPDATE
         Conflict Arbiter Indexes: t1_pkey
         Node expr: id
(11 rows)
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,2,3),(1,5,6) ON CONFLICT(id) DO UPDATE SET a = EXCLUDED.a + 1;
INSERT 0 2

          

        

      
     

Syntax

For details, see Syntax of INSERT. The following table describes the syntax of UPSERT.

**Table 1** UPSERT syntax
Syntax	Update Data Upon Conflict	Ignore Data Upon Conflict
Syntax 1: No index is specified.	INSERT INTO ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE	INSERT IGNORE INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING
Syntax 2: The unique key constraint can be inferred from the specified column name or constraint name.	INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT(...) DO UPDATE SET INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT ON CONSTRAINT con_name DO UPDATE SET	INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT(...) DO NOTHING INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT ON CONSTRAINT con_name DO NOTHING

Table 1 UPSERT syntax

Syntax

Update Data Upon Conflict

Ignore Data Upon Conflict

Syntax 1: No index is specified.

INSERT INTO ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE

INSERT IGNORE
INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING

Syntax 2: The unique key constraint can be inferred from the specified column name or constraint name.

INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT(...) DO UPDATE SET
INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT ON CONSTRAINT con_name DO UPDATE SET

INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT(...) DO NOTHING
INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT ON CONSTRAINT con_name DO NOTHING

In syntax 1, no index is specified. The system checks for conflicts on all primary keys or unique indexes. If a conflict exists, the system ignores or updates the corresponding data.

In syntax 2, a specified index is used for conflict check. The primary key or unique index is inferred from the column name, the expression that contains column names, or the constraint name specified in the ON CONFLICT clause.

Unique index inference
Syntax 2 infers the primary key or unique index by specifying the column name or constraint name. You can specify a single column name or multiple column names by using an expression, for example, (column1, column2, column3).

collation and opclass can be specified when you create an index. Therefore, you can also specify them after the column name for index inference.

COLLATE collation specifies the collation of a column, and opclass specifies the name of the operator class. For details, see CREATE INDEX.
When inferring the unique index from an expression that includes multiple column names, the system checks whether there is a unique index that exactly contains all the column names specified by conflict_target.
- If collation and opclass are not specified, a match is considered found as long as a column has the same name as the specified single column or multiple columns have the same names as those specified by the column expression (regardless of the values of collation and opclass specified for the index column).
- If collation and opclass are specified, their values must also match the collation and opclass of the index.
UPDATE clause

The UPDATE clause can use VALUES(colname) or EXCLUDED.colname to reference inserted data. EXCLUDED indicates the rows that should be excluded due to conflicts. An example is as follows:

   
        CREATE TABLE t1(id int PRIMARY KEY, a int, b int);
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,1,1);
-- Upon a conflicting row, change the value in column a to the value in column a of the target table plus 1, which, in this example, is (1,2,1).
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,10,20) ON CONFLICT(id) DO UPDATE SET a = a + 1;
-- EXCLUDED.a is used to reference the value of column a that is originally proposed for insertion. In this example, the value is 10.
-- Upon a conflicting row, change the value of column a to that of the referenced column plus 1. In this example, the value is updated to (1,11,1).
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1,10,20) ON CONFLICT(id) DO UPDATE SET a = EXCLUDED.a + 1;

WHERE clause
- The WHERE clause is used to determine whether a specified condition is met when data conflict occurs. If yes, update the conflict data. Otherwise, ignore it.
- Only syntax 2 of Update Data Upon Conflict can specify the WHERE clause, that is, INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT(...) DO UPDATE SET WHERE.

Note the following when using the syntax:

Syntax 1 and syntax 2 described in Table 1 cannot be used together in the same statement.
The WITH clause cannot be used at the same time.
INSERT OVERWRITE cannot be used at the same time.
The UPDATE clause and its WHERE clause do not support subqueries.
VALUES(colname) in the UPDATE clause does not support outer nested functions. That is, the usage similar to sqrt(VALUES(colname)) is not supported. To support this function, use the EXCLUDED.colname syntax.
INSERT INTO ON CONFLICT(...) DO UPDATE must contain conflict_target. That is, a column or constraint name must be specified.

Examples

Create table reason_t2 and insert data into it.

    
         DROP TABLE IF EXISTS reason_t2;
CREATE TABLE reason_t2
(
  a    int primary key,
  b    int,
  c    int
);

INSERT INTO reason_t2 VALUES (1, 2, 3);
SELECT * FROM reason_t2 ORDER BY 1;

Insert two data records into the table reason_t2. One data record conflicts and the other does not. Conflicting data is ignored, and non-conflicting data is inserted.

    
         INSERT INTO reason_t2 VALUES (1, 4, 5),(2, 6, 7) ON CONFLICT(a) DO NOTHING;
SELECT * FROM reason_t2 ORDER BY 1;

Insert two data records into the table reason_t2. One data record conflicts and the other does not. Conflicting data is updated, and non-conflicting data is inserted.

    
         INSERT INTO reason_t2 VALUES (1, 4, 5),(3, 8, 9) ON CONFLICT(a) DO UPDATE SET b = EXCLUDED.b, c = EXCLUDED.c;
SELECT * FROM reason_t2 ORDER BY 1;

Filter the updated rows.

    
         INSERT INTO reason_t2 VALUES (2, 7, 8) ON CONFLICT (a) DO UPDATE SET b = excluded.b, c = excluded.c  WHERE reason_t2.c = 7;
SELECT * FROM reason_t2 ORDER BY 1;

Insert data into the table reason_t. Update the conflicting data and adjust the mapping. That is, update column c to column b and column b to column c.

    
         INSERT INTO reason_t2 VALUES (1, 2, 3) ON CONFLICT (a) DO UPDATE SET b = excluded.c, c = excluded.b;
SELECT * FROM reason_t2 ORDER BY 1;