Batching Modifications

A Batch represents a set of data modification operations to be performed on tables in a database. Use of a Batch does not require creating an explicit Snapshot or Transaction. Until commit() is called on a Batch, no changes are propagated to the back-end.

Use Batch via BatchCheckout

Database.batch() creates a BatchCheckout instance to use as a context manager to handle creating and committing a Batch. The BatchCheckout will automatically call commit() if the with block exits without raising an exception.

from google.cloud.spanner import KeySet

client = spanner.Client()
instance = client.instance(INSTANCE_NAME)
database = instance.database(DATABASE_NAME)

to_delete = KeySet(keys=[
    ('bharney@example.com',)
    ('nonesuch@example.com',)
])

with database.batch() as batch:

    batch.insert(
        'citizens', columns=['email', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'age'],
        values=[
            ['phred@exammple.com', 'Phred', 'Phlyntstone', 32],
            ['bharney@example.com', 'Bharney', 'Rhubble', 31],
        ])

    batch.update(
        'citizens', columns=['email', 'age'],
        values=[
            ['phred@exammple.com', 33],
            ['bharney@example.com', 32],
        ])

    ...

    batch.delete('citizens', to_delete)

Inserting records using a Batch

Batch.insert() adds one or more new records to a table. This fails if any of the records already exist.

batch.insert(
    'citizens', columns=['email', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'age'],
    values=[
        ['phred@exammple.com', 'Phred', 'Phlyntstone', 32],
        ['bharney@example.com', 'Bharney', 'Rhubble', 31],
    ])

NOTE: Ensure that data being sent for STRING columns uses a text string (str in Python 3; unicode in Python 2).

Additionally, if you are writing data intended for a BYTES column, you must base64 encode it.

Update records using a Batch

Batch.update() updates one or more existing records in a table. This fails if any of the records do not already exist.

batch.update(
    'citizens', columns=['email', 'age'],
    values=[
        ['phred@exammple.com', 33],
        ['bharney@example.com', 32],
    ])

NOTE: Ensure that data being sent for STRING columns uses a text string (str in Python 3; unicode in Python 2).

Additionally, if you are writing data intended for a BYTES column, you must base64 encode it.

Insert or update records using a Batch

Batch.insert_or_update() inserts or updates one or more records in a table. Existing rows have values for the supplied columns overwritten; other column values are preserved.

batch.insert_or_update(
    'citizens', columns=['email', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'age'],
    values=[
        ['phred@exammple.com', 'Phred', 'Phlyntstone', 31],
        ['wylma@example.com', 'Wylma', 'Phlyntstone', 29],
    ])

NOTE: Ensure that data being sent for STRING columns uses a text string (str in Python 3; unicode in Python 2).

Additionally, if you are writing data intended for a BYTES column, you must base64 encode it.

Replace records using a Batch

Batch.replace() inserts or updates one or more records in a table. Existing rows have values for the supplied columns overwritten; other column values are set to null.

batch.replace(
    'citizens', columns=['email', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'age'],
    values=[
        ['bharney@example.com', 'Bharney', 'Rhubble', 30],
        ['bhettye@example.com', 'Bhettye', 'Rhubble', 30],
    ])

NOTE: Ensure that data being sent for STRING columns uses a text string (str in Python 3; unicode in Python 2).

Additionally, if you are writing data intended for a BYTES column, you must base64 encode it.

Delete records using a Batch

Batch.delete() removes one or more records from a table. Attempting to delete rows that do not exist will not cause errors.

from google.cloud.spanner import KeySet

to_delete = KeySet(keys=[
    ('bharney@example.com',)
    ('nonesuch@example.com',)
])

batch.delete('citizens', to_delete)

Commit changes for a Batch

After describing the modifications to be made to table data via the Batch.insert(), Batch.update(), Batch.insert_or_update(), Batch.replace(), and Batch.delete() methods above, send them to the back-end by calling Batch.commit(), which makes the Commit API call.

You do not need to call this yourself as BatchCheckout will call this method automatically upon exiting the with block.

batch.commit()

Next Step

Next, learn about Read-only Transactions via Snapshots.