UPDATE

The UPDATE statement modifies the values of columns in existing rows of a table.

Syntax

UPDATE [OR conflict-algorithm] table-name
SET column-name = expression [, column-name = expression ...]
[FROM from-clause]
[WHERE expression]
[RETURNING result-column [, result-column ...]]
[ORDER BY sort-expression [, sort-expression ...]]
[LIMIT expression [OFFSET expression]]

Description

UPDATE changes column values in rows that match the WHERE condition. If no WHERE clause is provided, all rows in the table are updated.

Conflict Handling

The optional OR clause specifies how to handle constraint violations during the update. When omitted, the default behavior is ABORT.

Algorithm	Behavior
`ABORT`	Roll back the current statement and return an error. The transaction remains active. This is the default.
`ROLLBACK`	Roll back the entire transaction and return an error.
`FAIL`	Stop at the first constraint violation and return an error, but keep changes made by earlier rows in this statement.
`IGNORE`	Skip the row that caused the constraint violation and continue processing remaining rows.
`REPLACE`	Delete the conflicting row before updating the current row. If a NOT NULL constraint fails and there is no DEFAULT value, the statement behaves as `ABORT`.

UPDATE OR IGNORE employees
SET department = 'Engineering'
WHERE department = 'IT';

SET Clause

The SET clause assigns new values to one or more columns. Each assignment consists of a column name, an equals sign, and an expression. The expression can reference other columns of the same row, and it sees the original (pre-update) values of all columns.

UPDATE products
SET price = price * 1.10,
    updated_at = datetime('now');

Multiple columns can also be set using a parenthesized column list:

UPDATE products
SET (price, updated_at) = (price * 1.10, datetime('now'));

FROM Clause

The FROM clause allows the UPDATE to reference other tables. Columns from the joined tables can be used in SET expressions and the WHERE clause. This is useful for updating a table based on matching rows from another table.

UPDATE inventory
SET quantity = inventory.quantity - order_items.qty
FROM order_items
WHERE inventory.product_id = order_items.product_id
  AND order_items.order_id = 1001;

When the target table also appears in the FROM clause, it refers to a second instance of that table that can be used for self-joins.

WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause restricts which rows are updated. Only rows where the expression evaluates to true are modified. If the WHERE clause is omitted, every row in the table is updated.

RETURNING Clause

The RETURNING clause causes the UPDATE statement to return the new values of each modified row. The result columns can be expressions referencing the updated column values.

UPDATE accounts
SET balance = balance - 100
WHERE account_id = 42
RETURNING account_id, balance;
-- Returns: 42|900

ORDER BY and LIMIT

The ORDER BY and LIMIT clauses restrict which rows are updated. ORDER BY determines the order in which rows are considered, and LIMIT caps the number of rows that are actually modified. ORDER BY requires LIMIT to be present.

UPDATE logs
SET archived = 1
ORDER BY created_at ASC
LIMIT 1000;

LIMIT accepts an optional OFFSET to skip a number of rows before applying the limit:

UPDATE logs
SET archived = 1
ORDER BY created_at ASC
LIMIT 1000 OFFSET 500;

Examples

Update rows matching a condition

CREATE TABLE employees (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, salary REAL, department TEXT);
INSERT INTO employees VALUES (1, 'Alice', 90000, 'Engineering');
INSERT INTO employees VALUES (2, 'Bob', 75000, 'Marketing');
INSERT INTO employees VALUES (3, 'Carol', 85000, 'Engineering');

UPDATE employees
SET salary = salary * 1.05
WHERE department = 'Engineering';

SELECT name, salary FROM employees WHERE department = 'Engineering';
-- Alice|94500.0
-- Carol|89250.0

Update using a join with FROM

CREATE TABLE departments (name TEXT PRIMARY KEY, budget REAL);
INSERT INTO departments VALUES ('Engineering', 500000);
INSERT INTO departments VALUES ('Marketing', 200000);

CREATE TABLE employees2 (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, bonus REAL, dept TEXT);
INSERT INTO employees2 VALUES (1, 'Alice', 0, 'Engineering');
INSERT INTO employees2 VALUES (2, 'Bob', 0, 'Marketing');

UPDATE employees2
SET bonus = departments.budget * 0.01
FROM departments
WHERE employees2.dept = departments.name;

SELECT name, bonus FROM employees2;
-- Alice|5000.0
-- Bob|2000.0

Update with RETURNING

CREATE TABLE counters (name TEXT PRIMARY KEY, value INTEGER);
INSERT INTO counters VALUES ('page_views', 41);

UPDATE counters
SET value = value + 1
WHERE name = 'page_views'
RETURNING name, value;
-- page_views|42

Getting Started

Fundamentals

AI and Agents

CLI Reference

SQL Reference

Changelog

UPDATE

UPDATE

Syntax

Description

Conflict Handling

SET Clause

FROM Clause

WHERE Clause

RETURNING Clause

ORDER BY and LIMIT

Examples

Update rows matching a condition

Update using a join with FROM

Update with RETURNING

See Also

​UPDATE

​Syntax

​Description

​Conflict Handling

​SET Clause

​FROM Clause

​WHERE Clause

​RETURNING Clause

​ORDER BY and LIMIT

​Examples

​Update rows matching a condition

​Update using a join with FROM

​Update with RETURNING

​See Also

UPDATE

Syntax

Description

Conflict Handling

SET Clause

FROM Clause

WHERE Clause

RETURNING Clause

ORDER BY and LIMIT

Examples

Update rows matching a condition

Update using a join with FROM

Update with RETURNING

See Also