Update multiple rows with different values in a single SQL query by 
Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16Dumping examples under nodejs/sequelize/raw/many_to_many.js.
Not possible without subqueries in the standard syntax, a huge shame: stackoverflow.com/questions/1293330/how-can-i-do-an-update-statement-with-join-in-sql-server
Demo under: nodejs/sequelize/raw/many_to_many.js.
NO way in the SQL standard apparently, but you'd hope that implementation status would be similar to UPDATE with JOIN, but not even!
- PostgreSQL: possible with
DELETE FROM USING: stackoverflow.com/questions/11753904/postgresql-delete-with-inner-join - SQLite: not possible without subqueries as of 3.35 far: stackoverflow.com/questions/24511153/how-delete-table-inner-join-with-other-table-in-sqlite, Does not appear to have any relevant features at: www.sqlite.org/lang_delete.html
ORM
- Sequelize: no support of course: stackoverflow.com/questions/40890131/sequelize-destroy-record-with-join
A quick look at PostgreSQL's compliance notes: www.postgresql.org/docs/13/features.html shows the complete utter mess that this standard is. Multiple compliance levels that no one fully implements and optional features everywhere.
OK, there's a billion questions:
- SQL Server
- stackoverflow.com/questions/485409/generating-a-histogram-from-column-values-in-a-database OP did not know the difference between count and histogram :-) But it's the number one Google result.
- stackoverflow.com/questions/19103991/create-range-bins-from-sql-server-table-for-histograms has a minor extra group by twist, but otherwise fine
- stackoverflow.com/questions/16268441/generate-histogram-in-sql-server
- SQLite
- stackoverflow.com/questions/67514208/how-to-optimise-creating-histogram-bins-in-sqlite perf only, benchmarking would be needed. SQLite.
- stackoverflow.com/questions/32155449/create-a-histogram-with-a-dynamic-number-of-partitions-in-sqlite variable bin size, same number of entries per bin
- stackoverflow.com/questions/60348109/histogram-for-time-periods-using-sqlite-regular-buckets-1h-wide time
- MySQL: stackoverflow.com/questions/1764881/getting-data-for-histogram-plot MySQL appears to extend
ROUNDto also round by integers:ROUND(numeric_value, -2), but this is not widely portable which is a shame - stackoverflow.com/questions/72367652/populating-empty-bins-in-a-histogram-generated-using-sql specifically asks about empty bins, which is amazing. Amazon Redshift dialect unfortunately, but answer provided works widely, and Redshift was forked from PostgreSQL, so there's hope. Those newb open source server focused projects that don't use AGPL!
Let's try it on SQLite 3.40.1, Ubuntu 23.04. Data setup:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'create table t(x integer)'
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
insert into t values (
0,
2,
2,
3,
5,
6,
6,
8,
9,
17,
)
EOF
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'create index tx on t(x)'For a bin size of 5 ignoring empty ranges we can:which produces the desired:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
select floor(x/5)*5 as x,
count(*) as cnt
from t
group by 1
order by 1
EOF0|4
5|5
15|1And to consider empty ranges we can use SQL which outputs the desired:
genenerate_series + as per stackoverflow.com/questions/72367652/populating-empty-bins-in-a-histogram-generated-using-sql:sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
select x, sum(cnt) from (
select floor(x/5)*5 as x,
count(*) as cnt
from t
group by 1
union
select *, 0 as cnt from generate_series(0, 15, 5)
)
group by x
EOF0|4
5|5
10|0
15|1Let's try it on SQLite 3.40.1, Ubuntu 23.04. Data setup:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'create table t(x integer, y integer)'
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
insert into t values
(0, 0),
(1, 1),
(2, 2),
(3, 3),
(4, 4),
(5, 5),
(6, 6),
(7, 7),
(8, 8),
(9, 9),
(10, 10),
(11, 11),
(12, 12),
(13, 13),
(14, 14),
(15, 15),
(16, 16),
(17, 17),
(18, 18),
(19, 19),
(2, 18)
EOF
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'create index txy on t(x, y)'For a bin size of 5 ignoring empty ranges we can:which produces the desired:
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
select
floor(x/5)*5 as x,
floor(y/5)*5 as y,
count(*) as cnt
from t
group by 1, 2
order by 1, 2
EOF0|0|5
0|15|1
5|5|5
10|10|5
15|15|5And to consider empty ranges we can use SQL which outputs the desired:
genenerate_series + as per stackoverflow.com/questions/72367652/populating-empty-bins-in-a-histogram-generated-using-sql:sqlite3 tmp.sqlite <<EOF
select x, y, sum(cnt) from (
select
floor(x/5)*5 as x,
floor(y/5)*5 as y,
count(*) as cnt
from t
group by 1, 2
union
select *, 0 as cnt from generate_series(0, 15, 5) inner join (select * from generate_series(0, 15, 5))
)
group by x, y
EOF0|0|5
0|5|0
0|10|0
0|15|1
5|0|0
5|5|5
5|10|0
5|15|0
10|0|0
10|5|0
10|10|5
10|15|0
15|0|0
15|5|0
15|10|0
15|15|5How to implement Nested set model in SQL:
- stackoverflow.com/questions/192220/what-is-the-most-efficient-elegant-way-to-parse-a-flat-table-into-a-tree/42781302#42781302 contains the correct left/size representation and update queries, which makes it much easier to maintain the tree without having to worry about the sizes of siblings which are constant
- stackoverflow.com/questions/192220/what-is-the-most-efficient-elegant-way-to-parse-a-flat-table-into-a-tree/194031#194031 amazing ASCII art representations of the structure. Unfortunately uses a wonky left/right representation, rather than the much more natural left/size representation from the other post
Minimal example: nodejs/sequelize/raw/recursive.js
More advanced SQL tree traversal examples: nodejs/sequelize/raw/tree.js
Example under: nodejs/sequelize/raw/tree.js
The third part module, which clutters up any serches you make for the built-in one.
Similar to SQL subquery, but with some differences: stackoverflow.com/questions/706972/difference-between-cte-and-subquery
rm -f tmp.sqlite
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'create table t(i integer)'
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'insert into t values (1), (2)'
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'with mycte as ( select * from t ) delete from mycte where i = 1'
sqlite3 tmp.sqlite 'select * from t'Each transaction isolation level specifies what can or cannot happen when two queries are being run in parallel, i.e.: the memory semantics of the system.
Remember that queries can affects thousands of rows, and database systems like PostgreSQL can run multiple such queries at the same time.
Implementation specifics:
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. Source. We have two killer features:
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Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.
Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.
Figure 5. Web editor. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. 
- Infinitely deep tables of contents:
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