PostgreSQL - Update multiple rows at once

In this article, we would like to show you how to update multiple rows at once in PostgreSQL.

Quick solution:

UPDATE "table_name"
SET "column1" = value1, "column2" = value2, "columnN" = valueN
WHERE condition;

Practical example

To show you how to update multiple rows at once, we will use the following users table:

Note:

At the end of this article you can find database preparation SQL queries.

Example

In this example, we will update department_id and salary value of the first three users from the users table.

Query

UPDATE "users"
SET "department_id" = 5, "salary" = 6000
WHERE "id" <= 3;

or

UPDATE "users"SET "department_id" = 5, "salary" = 6000 WHERE "id" = 1;
UPDATE "users"SET "department_id" = 5, "salary" = 6000 WHERE "id" = 2;
UPDATE "users"SET "department_id" = 5, "salary" = 6000 WHERE "id" = 3;

Result:

Database preparation

create_tables.sql file:

CREATE TABLE "users" (
	"id" SERIAL,
	"name" VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	"surname" VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	"department_id" INTEGER,
    "salary" DECIMAL(15,2) NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ("id")
);

insert_data.sql file:

INSERT INTO "users"
	( "name", "surname", "department_id", "salary")
VALUES
	('John', 'Stewart', 1, '6000'),
	('Chris', 'Brown', 2, '6000'),
	('Kate', 'Lewis', 3, '4000'),
	('Ailisa', 'Gomez', NULL, '4000'),
	('Gwendolyn', 'James', NULL, '4000'),
	('Simon', 'Collins', 4, '4000'),
	('Taylor', 'Martin', 2, '2000'),
	('Andrew', 'Thompson', NULL, '2000');