# Upsert

Finally, all those SQL MERGE tricks codified so that you can do "upsert" on MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

You pass a selector that uniquely identifies a row, whether it exists or not. You pass a set of attributes that should be set on that row. Based on what database is being used, one of a number of SQL MERGE-like tricks are used.

The second argument is currently (mis)named a "document" because this was inspired by [mongo-ruby-driver's update method](http://api.mongodb.org/ruby/1.6.4/Mongo/Collection.html#update-instance_method).

## Usage

### One by one

Faster than just doing `Pet.create`... 85% faster on PostgreSQL, for example. But no validations or anything.

    upsert = Upsert.new Pet.connection, Pet.table_name
    upsert.row({:name => 'Jerry'}, :breed => 'beagle')
    upsert.row({:name => 'Pierre'}, :breed => 'tabby')

### Streaming

Rows are buffered in memory until it's efficient to send them to the database. Currently this only provides an advantage on MySQL because it uses `ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE`... but if a similar method appears in PostgreSQL, the same code will still work.

    Upsert.stream(Pet.connection, Pet.table_name) do |upsert|
      upsert.row({:name => 'Jerry'}, :breed => 'beagle')
      upsert.row({:name => 'Pierre'}, :breed => 'tabby')
    end

### `ActiveRecord::Base.upsert` (optional)

For bulk upserts, you probably still want to use `Upsert.stream`.

    require 'upsert/active_record_upsert'
    Pet.upsert({:name => 'Jerry'}, :breed => 'beagle')
    Pet.upsert({:name => 'Pierre'}, :breed => 'tabby')

### Gotchas

Currently, the first row you pass in determines the columns that will be used. That's useful for mass importing of many rows with the same columns, but is surprising if you're trying to use a single `Upsert` object to add arbitrary data. For example, this won't work:

    Upsert.stream(Pet.connection, Pet.table_name) do |upsert|
      upsert.row({:name => 'Jerry'}, :breed => 'beagle')
      upsert.row({:tag_number => 456}, :spiel => 'great cat') # won't work - doesn't use same columns
    end

You would need to use a new `Upsert` object. On the other hand, this is totally fine:

    Pet.upsert({:name => 'Jerry'}, :breed => 'beagle')
    Pet.upsert({:tag_number => 456}, :spiel => 'great cat')

Please send in a pull request if you think there's a better way!

## Real-world usage

<p><a href="http://brighterplanet.com"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.brighterplanet.com/assets/logos/flush-left/inline/green/rasterized/brighter_planet-160-transparent.png" alt="Brighter Planet logo"/></a></p>

We use `upsert` for [big data processing at Brighter Planet](http://brighterplanet.com/research) and in production at

* [Brighter Planet's impact estimate web service](http://impact.brighterplanet.com)
* [Brighter Planet's reference data web service](http://data.brighterplanet.com)

Originally written to speed up the [`data_miner`](https://github.com/seamusabshere/data_miner) data mining library.

## Supported databases

### MySQL

Using the [mysql2](https://rubygems.org/gems/mysql2) driver.

    Upsert.new Mysql2::Connection.new([...]), :pets

#### Speed

From the tests:

    Upsert was 77% faster than find + new/set/save
    Upsert was 58% faster than create + rescue/find/update
    Upsert was 80% faster than find_or_create + update_attributes
    Upsert was 39% faster than faking upserts with activerecord-import

#### SQL MERGE trick

"ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE" where we just set everything to the value of the insert.

    # http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/insert-on-duplicate.html
    INSERT INTO table (a,b,c) VALUES (1,2,3), (4,5,6)
      ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE a=VALUES(a),b=VALUES(b),c=VALUES(c);

Since this is an upsert helper library, not a general-use ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE wrapper, you **can't** do things like `c=c+1`.

### PostgreSQL

Using the [pg](https://rubygems.org/gems/pg) driver.

    Upsert.new PG.connect([...]), :pets

#### Speed

From the tests:

    Upsert was 73% faster than find + new/set/save
    Upsert was 84% faster than find_or_create + update_attributes
    Upsert was 87% faster than create + rescue/find/update
    # (can't compare to activerecord-import because you can't fake it on pg)

#### SQL MERGE trick

    # http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/plpgsql-control-structures.html#PLPGSQL-ERROR-TRAPPING
    CREATE TABLE db (a INT PRIMARY KEY, b TEXT);
    CREATE FUNCTION merge_db(key INT, data TEXT) RETURNS VOID AS
    $$
    BEGIN
        LOOP
            -- first try to update the key
            UPDATE db SET b = data WHERE a = key;
            IF found THEN
                RETURN;
            END IF;
            -- not there, so try to insert the key
            -- if someone else inserts the same key concurrently,
            -- we could get a unique-key failure
            BEGIN
                INSERT INTO db(a,b) VALUES (key, data);
                RETURN;
            EXCEPTION WHEN unique_violation THEN
                -- Do nothing, and loop to try the UPDATE again.
            END;
        END LOOP;
    END;
    $$
    LANGUAGE plpgsql;
    SELECT merge_db(1, 'david');
    SELECT merge_db(1, 'dennis');

The decision was made **not** to use the following because it's not straight from the manual:

    # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1109061/insert-on-duplicate-update-postgresql
    UPDATE table SET field='C', field2='Z' WHERE id=3;
    INSERT INTO table (id, field, field2)
      SELECT 3, 'C', 'Z'
      WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM table WHERE id=3);

This was also rejected because there's something we can use in the manual:

    # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5269590/why-doesnt-this-rule-prevent-duplicate-key-violations
    BEGIN;
    CREATE TEMP TABLE stage_data(key_column, data_columns...) ON COMMIT DROP;
    \copy stage_data from data.csv with csv header
    -- prevent any other updates while we are merging input (omit this if you don't need it)
    LOCK target_data IN SHARE ROW EXCLUSIVE MODE;
    -- insert into target table
    INSERT INTO target_data(key_column, data_columns...)
       SELECT key_column, data_columns...
       FROM stage_data
       WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM target_data
                         WHERE target_data.key_column = stage_data.key_column)
    END;

### Sqlite

Using the [sqlite3](https://rubygems.org/gems/sqlite3) driver.

    Upsert.new SQLite3::Database.open([...]), :pets

#### Speed

FIXME tests are segfaulting. Pull request would be lovely.

#### SQL MERGE trick

    # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2717590/sqlite-upsert-on-duplicate-key-update
    # bad example because we're not doing on-duplicate-key update
    INSERT OR IGNORE INTO visits VALUES (127.0.0.1, 1);
    UPDATE visits SET visits = 1 WHERE ip LIKE 127.0.0.1;

### Rails / ActiveRecord

(assuming that one of the other three supported drivers is being used under the covers)

    Upsert.new Pet.connection, Pet.table_name

#### Speed

Depends on the driver being used!

#### SQL MERGE trick

Depends on the driver being used!

## Features

### Tested to be fast and portable

In addition to correctness, the library's tests check that it is

1. Faster than comparable upsert techniques
2. Compatible with supported databases

### Not dependent on ActiveRecord

As below, all you need is a raw database connection like a `Mysql2::Connection`, `PG::Connection` or a `SQLite3::Database`. These are equivalent:

    # with activerecord
    Upsert.new ActiveRecord::Base.connection, :pets
    # with activerecord, prettier
    Upsert.new Pet.connection, Pet.table_name
    # without activerecord
    Upsert.new Mysql2::Connection.new([...]), :pets

### For a specific use case, faster and more portable than `activerecord-import`

You could also use [activerecord-import](https://github.com/zdennis/activerecord-import) to upsert:

    Pet.import columns, all_values, :timestamps => false, :on_duplicate_key_update => columns

This, however, only works on MySQL and requires ActiveRecord&mdash;and if all you are doing is upserts, `upsert` is tested to be 40% faster. And you don't have to put all of the rows to be upserted into a single huge array - you can stream them using `Upsert.stream`.

## Copyright

Copyright 2012 Brighter Planet, Inc.