Use Caution with SQL Server's MERGE Statement

By:   |   Updated: 2018-07-24   |   Comments (27)   |   Related: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | > TSQL


Problem

SQL Server 2008 introduced the MERGE statement, which promised to be a simpler way to combine insert/update/delete statements, such as those used during ETL (extract, transform and load) operations. However, MERGE originally shipped with several "wrong results" and other bugs - some of which have been addressed, and some of which continue to exist in current versions. People also tend to make some leaps of faith regarding atomicity - they don't realize that the single statement actually performs different operations separately, and thus can suffer from issues due to concurrency and race conditions just like separate statements can.

Solution

I have been recommending that - for now - people stick to their tried and true methods of separate statements. Here are the major reasons:

Bugs with the SQL Server Merge Statement

It can be quite difficult to validate and guarantee that you are immune from any of the bugs that still exist. A few Connect items that you should be aware of, that are either still active, closed as "Won't Fix"/"By Design", or have only been fixed in specific versions (often requiring a cumulative update or on-demand hotfix):

Connect issue Current / last known status
#773895 : MERGE Incorrectly Reports Unique Key Violations Won't Fix
#771336 : Indexed view is not updated on data changes in base table Fixed only in 2012+
#766165 : MERGE evaluates filtered index per row, not post operation, which causes filtered index violation Won't Fix
#723696 : Basic MERGE upsert causing deadlocks By Design
#713699 : A system assertion check has failed ("cxrowset.cpp":1528) Won't Fix
#699055 : MERGE query plans allow FK and CHECK constraint violations Active
#685800 : Parameterized DELETE and MERGE Allow Foreign Key Constraint Violations Won't Fix
#654746 : merge in SQL2008 SP2 still suffers from "Attempting to set a non-NULL-able column's value to NULL" Active
#635778 : NOT MATCHED and MATCHED parts of a SQL MERGE statement are not optimized Won't Fix
#633132 : MERGE INTO WITH FILTERED SOURCE does not work properly Won't Fix
#596086 : MERGE statement bug when INSERT/DELETE used and filtered index Won't Fix
#583719 : MERGE statement treats non-nullable computed columns incorrectly in some scenarios Won't Fix
#581548 : SQL2008 R2 Merge statement with only table variables fails Fixed only in 2012+
#539084 : Search condition on a non-key column and an ORDER BY in source derived table breaks MERGE completely Won't Fix
#357419 : MERGE statement bypasses Referential Integrity Fixed only in 2012+
Merge statement fails when running db in Simple recovery model (2016) Fixed only with trace flag 692
MERGE statement assertion error when database is in simple recovery model (2017) Fixed only with trace flag 692
MERGE and INSERT with COLUMNSTORE index creates crash dump Unacknowledged
Support MERGE INTO target for memory optimized tables  Under Review
MERGE fails with a duplicate key error when using DELETE and INSERT actions  Under Review
CDC logging wrong operation type for a MERGE statement, when Unique index is present  Under Review
Query optimizer cannot make plan for merge statement  Under Review
Poor error message with MERGE when source/target appear in impossible places Won't Fix
MERGE statement provokes deadlocking due to incorrect locking behavior  Under Review
Merge statement Delete does not update indexed view in all cases  Under Review
EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION When referencing the "deleted" table from an OUTPUT statement during MERGE  Under Review
Fulltext index not updating after changing text column via MERGE statement on a partitioned table Under Review
MERGE on not matched by source UPDATE ignores variable declaration Under Review
"A severe error occurred on the current command." with MERGE and OUTPUT Fixed only in 2014+

Some of these bugs can be worked around in the meantime using trace flags, but is the condensed format of MERGE really worth all of the extra testing that will require? Also, to give an idea of how many bugs might still have gone undetected, check out these informative blog posts by Paul White to understand how hard these bugs can be to even notice, never mind track down and fix.

SQL Server Merge Concurrency Issues

MERGE *looks* like it will take care of concurrency for you, because implicitly it seems to a single, atomic statement. However, under the covers, SQL Server really does perform the different operations independently. This means that you could end up with race conditions or primary key conflicts when multiple users are attempting to fire the same MERGE statement concurrently. Dan Guzman went into a lot of detail in his blog post a few years ago, but basically this means that unless you use a HOLDLOCK hint on your MERGE target, your statement is vulnerable to race conditions. In reviewing customer code and questions out in the community, I don't recall ever coming across a HOLDLOCK hint naturally, except in cases where someone was demonstrating the very race condition I'm talking about. The pattern should be:

MERGE dbo.TableName WITH (HOLDLOCK) AS target
USING ... AS source ...;

And not what I typically see:

MERGE dbo.TableName AS target
USING ... AS source ...;

SQL Server Merge Effect on Triggers

Due to those same mechanics, converting your insert/update/delete code should be thoroughly tested when triggers are involved. Prevailing wisdom has instilled in most of us the mindset that, in SQL Server, triggers fire once per statement. However, with MERGE, this wisdom must be revisited, because it's not quite true any longer. Let's take this simple example:

SET NOCOUNT ON;
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.MyTable(id INT);
GO
INSERT dbo.MyTable VALUES(1),(4);
GO
CREATE TRIGGER dbo.MyTable_All
 ON dbo.MyTable
 FOR INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
AS
BEGIN
  PRINT 'Executing trigger. Rows affected: ' + RTRIM(@@ROWCOUNT);
  
  IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM inserted) AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM deleted)
  BEGIN
    PRINT '  I am an insert...';
  END
  IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM inserted) AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM deleted)
  BEGIN
    PRINT '  I am an update...';
  END
  IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM inserted) AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM deleted)
  BEGIN
    PRINT '  I am a delete...';
  END
END
GO

Now, when I first started playing with MERGE, I expected the trigger to fire once, just like it does for any multi-row operation. But this is not the case; it actually fires the trigger for each operation that ends up happening as a result of the MERGE command. For example, with this MERGE:

MERGE dbo.MyTable WITH (HOLDLOCK) AS Target
USING (VALUES(1),(2),(3)) AS Source(id)
ON Target.id = Source.id
WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET Target.id = Source.id
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT(id) VALUES(Source.id)
WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE THEN DELETE;

I expected this output, since my MERGE operation affected a total of 4 rows:

Executing trigger. Rows affected: 4
  I am an insert...
  I am an update...
  I am a delete...

And then when I realized that the trigger gets fired multiple times, I expected this output, since I updated one row, inserted two new ones, and deleted one row:

Executing trigger. Rows affected: 2
  I am an insert...
Executing trigger. Rows affected: 1
  I am an update...
Executing trigger. Rows affected: 1
  I am a delete...

What I got was surprising to me - it made it seem like a hybrid between the trigger firing once and the trigger firing multiple times:

Executing trigger. Rows affected: 4
  I am an insert...
Executing trigger. Rows affected: 4
  I am an update...
Executing trigger. Rows affected: 4
  I am a delete...

So, the lesson here is, if you already have triggers and you're switching to MERGE, don't rely on @@ROWCOUNT for anything. This is true also if you have your INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE triggers in different modules - they'll still all report the total @@ROWCOUNT for the operation even when no rows are affected by that branch. So when you do make this switch you'll want to invest in refactoring or at least heavily testing your triggers in all unit test outcomes.

Improve Your Productivity or not with the SQL Server Merge Statement?

This is a minor and subjective gripe, but I've always found the Merge syntax quite daunting and difficult to memorize. I can't imagine there are many people out there who can write a fully-featured MERGE statement without consulting Books Online, and without going through many more cycles of testing to verify that all branches function as expected.

Conclusion

I am not trying to spread fear, sound like Chicken Little, or make you wary about any new feature that is introduced in SQL Server, however the increasing number of issues I see with MERGE make me feel obligated to document the potential problems, make sure that you are very well aware of them before deciding to use the syntax. Personally, I have converted a few implementations back to separate statements, because there came a point where I no longer felt I could trust the behavior of MERGE. If you're going to use it, please be careful!

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About the author
MSSQLTips author Aaron Bertrand Aaron Bertrand (@AaronBertrand) is a passionate technologist with industry experience dating back to Classic ASP and SQL Server 6.5. He is editor-in-chief of the performance-related blog, SQLPerformance.com, and also blogs at sqlblog.org.

This author pledges the content of this article is based on professional experience and not AI generated.

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Article Last Updated: 2018-07-24

Comments For This Article




Tuesday, July 13, 2021 - 5:42:32 PM - Tim Cartwright Back To Top (88997)
Aaron, I don't know if you are interested, but I wrote a generator to generate upserts using regular CRUD statements. I always reference this blog post when I am explaining to people to avoid the use of MERGE.

https://gist.github.com/tcartwright/cdec6b7df7e227c9b5beded468c6c588

Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 3:17:55 PM - Marc Back To Top (86193)

It looks like a bunch of the one marked "Won't Fix" were actually fixed in 2016, 2017.  That list might be a lot smaller today.


Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - 1:20:17 PM - John Zabroski Back To Top (78348)

Hi Aaron,

I also messaged you on Twitter, but just found this comment box below all the advertisements.

We found yet another bug with MERGE - you cannot use MERGE on a table with temporal tables iff the temporal table has index(es).

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/f4fbdfcc-c10e-4412-8011-2bbd3cdda5eb/merge-on-temporal-table-fails-with-attempting-to-set-a-nonnullable-columns-value-to-null?forum=sqldatabaseengine

And associated Azure votes:
https://feedback.azure.com/forums/908035-sql-server/suggestions/36078787-fix-merge-bug-on-temporal-history-tables-with-inde

https://feedback.azure.com/forums/908035-sql-server/suggestions/35519209-merge-not-working-when-index-created-on-temporal-t


Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 6:34:06 PM - r2evans Back To Top (78268)

I wasn't happy with the prospect of the "do nothing" variant for sql server:

WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET Target.id = Source.id

I didn't do enough testing to determine if triggers were being run on rows even when I wanted nothing to happen (e.g., "ModifiedTimestamp"), but I suspected they would run (on principle). Then I found a suggestion on StackOverflow to use a dummy no-op, that would turn one of your first queries into:

DECLARE @dummy int;
MERGE dbo.MyTable WITH (HOLDLOCK) AS Target USING (VALUES(1),(2),(3)) AS Source(id) ON Target.id = Source.id WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET @dummy = 1 WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT(id) VALUES(Source.id) WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE THEN DELETE;

The OP stated a significant speed-up to this (which could account for avoidance of triggers and such).

Ref: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5884720/3358272


Sunday, June 24, 2018 - 12:43:07 AM - Paul Hunter Back To Top (76328)

Aaron,
I just finished reading your comments to Gordon Linoff and believe I know your response ( *do the queries*  update then insert).  Merge is very inticing since I can issue a single statement.... but better it safer to use supported tried and true tech than getting distracted by the new object.

 


Sunday, June 24, 2018 - 12:27:37 AM - Paul Hunter Back To Top (76327)

Does your cautions about using MERGE still hold true for SQL 2017?  I have a stage db that has a truncate/load pattern from another soures (~80 tables in MySQL).  I clean up the data and then merge into the main tables using a Merge command list this...

merge TargetDB.dbo.SomeTable as tgt with (holdlock)

using (

    select list, of, columns, from StageDB.dbo.SomeTable

    except

    select list, of, columns, from TargetDB.dbo.SomeTable

) as src on src.keys = tgt.keys

when matched...

when not matched...

The total volume of data is small and the load window is large and takes about 90 seconds to load everything.  I haven't noticed any blocking or missed updates/inserts.  I auto-generate the procedure using sys tables, columns and indexes so that adding new columns and/or tables doesn't blow up... as long as src and traget match....

Looking for advice on things to check.

 


Thursday, November 23, 2017 - 12:07:24 PM - ivan Back To Top (70135)

Consider the following case, when the merge statement hung at update phrase, and the related business table changed the join column, it will occur the insertion operation, ant this will lead to deadlock.

 


Friday, July 31, 2015 - 12:18:53 PM - mha Back To Top (38339)

yes i put it in all triggers bcs the merge call the trigger even is not matched, so you need to have that check to understand it's a fail insert or not.

let say it like this. merge is inserting into the table, but bcs it's not matched it will insert nothing. that's why you need to have a check 


Thursday, July 30, 2015 - 12:37:48 PM - Aaron Bertrand Back To Top (38327)

@mha You put that logic into all of your triggers, even if they're only insert? The point I think you missed is that @@ROWCOUNT populates for the sum of actions in each independent trigger - so if a MERGE deleted 20 rows and updated 0, the update trigger would say 20. Yes, you can check for that with checks against inserted/deleted, but the number of triggers I see where only @@ROWCOUNT is checked is quite high.


Thursday, July 30, 2015 - 12:25:21 PM - mha Back To Top (38326)

the trigger point that you are missing about trigger is, the trigger is firing in case of fail update,delete and insert. so you need to add something at top of your trigger to make sure it doesn't get fire

 

SET @Audit_Event = 'Insert'; -- Set Action to Insert by default.

IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM DELETED)

BEGIN

    SET @Audit_Event = 

        CASE

            WHEN EXISTS(SELECT * FROM INSERTED) THEN 'Update' -- Set Action to Updated.

            ELSE 'Delete' -- Set Action to Deleted.       

        END

END

ELSE 

    IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM INSERTED) RETURN; -- Nothing updated or inserted. 

 

last line does the magic!


Wednesday, January 7, 2015 - 4:20:59 AM - Hubert Trzewik Back To Top (35851)

I agree that MERGE syntax is hard to memorize. MERGE statements are always long and we have not many occasion to use it. But MERGE is very useful - when it's hard to write separate UPDATE/INSERT/DELETE, because after one step you loose information which rows to affect in next one.

Truly, I'm big fan of MERGE statement and you article is a bucket of cold water on my head.


Monday, January 5, 2015 - 10:14:43 AM - Aaron Bertrand Back To Top (35826)

Owen, is there a trigger on your table? Short of that I haven't come across this problem.


Monday, January 5, 2015 - 9:04:51 AM - Owen Geraghty Back To Top (35823)

Very nice article. I have a similar issue to a couple of these, but I don't think it falls into any of these categories.

Problem I am having is when running the below statement (or similar, has happened for various tables).

 

IF OBJECT_ID (N'dimStaffRole', N'U') IS NULL
BEGIN
 create table dimStaffRole (
  DW_ID bigint not null identity primary key,
  DW_CREATED datetime not null,
  DW_UPDATED datetime not null,
  StaffRole_KEY nvarchar(100) unique not null,
  MasterStudentCode nvarchar(20),
  Role nvarchar(100))
END

merge into dimStaffRole as target
using (SELECT distinct
 getdate() as DW_CREATED,
 getdate() as DW_UPDATED,
 isnull(MPA_MSTC, '') + '¬' + isnull(MAT_NAME, '') as StaffRole_KEY,
 isnull(MPA_MSTC, '') as MasterStudentCode,
 isnull(MAT_NAME, '') as Role
 from SRS_MPA
 inner join MEN_MAT on MPA_MATC = MAT_CODE) as source
  on (target.StaffRole_KEY = source.StaffRole_KEY)
when matched then  
 update set 
 target.DW_UPDATED = source.DW_UPDATED,
 target.StaffRole_KEY = source.StaffRole_KEY,
 target.MasterStudentCode = source.MasterStudentCode,
 target.Role = source.Role
when not matched by target then
 insert(
 DW_CREATED,
 DW_UPDATED,
 StaffRole_KEY,
 MasterStudentCode,
 Role)
values (
 source.DW_CREATED,
 source.DW_UPDATED,
 source.StaffRole_KEY,
 source.MasterStudentCode,
 source.Role);

 

I get the following error, some of the time (between 4-7 minutes into execution of SQL job which runs a number of these packages in the same format):

"dimStaffRole:Error: Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'DW_CREATED', table 'DM_Admissions.dbo.dimStaffRole'; column does not allow nulls. UPDATE fails."

This should not happen as it should always insert value returned by getdate() into the DW_CREATED field.


Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - 9:31:39 AM - Gerald Britton Back To Top (35741)

I think you and Greg Larsen should talk...

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/using-the-merge-statement-to-perform-an-upsert.html

Greg seems unaware of the issues you identify in this article.

 

FWIW, Itzik Ben-Gan, Dejan Sarka, and Ron Talmage identify the most common issue in their book:

 

Training Kit (Exam 70-461): Querying Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012

Print ISBN-10: 0-7356-6605-9

Print ISBN-13: 978-0-7356-6605-4

 

In Chapter 11, it reads:

AVOIDING MERGE CONFLICTS

Suppose that a certain key K doesn’t yet exist in the target table. Two processes, P1 and P2, run a MERGE statement such as the previous one at the same time with the same source key K. It is normally possible for the MERGE statement issued by P1 to insert a new row with the key K between the points in time when the MERGE statement issued by P2 checks whether the target already has that key and inserts rows. In such a case, the MERGE statement issued by P2 will fail due to a primary key violation. To prevent such a failure, use the hint SERIALIZABLE or HOLDLOCK (both have equivalent meanings) against the target as shown in the previous statement. 

 

Thursday, December 18, 2014 - 7:06:22 PM - Hank Freeman Back To Top (35673)

This is one of the best post on MSSQL Tips. I have passed the link to server professional friends for their review.


Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - 4:47:52 PM - HLGEM Back To Top (31977)

I have to add that when you use it and, later on down the road, you have an issue where you need to figure out a problem with it, it is much harder to debug than an update statment followed by an insert. 

 


Sunday, January 26, 2014 - 8:28:58 PM - Aaron Bertrand Back To Top (29228)

Gordon, I still wouldn't use it. I haven't done thorough testing of any of these bugs, and I have no idea which one(s) might apply in your scenario. Even if I did perform testing against all of them, and didn't find any bugs that affected my scenario, a very subtle difference could make the bugs appear in yours. The bugs exist, some of them closed as "by design" or "won't fix," and some of them "incorrect results" bugs; ruling them out in a limited test doesn't make them disappear any more than posting a "no bears" sign on my lawn keeps bears away - even though it may *seem* to work. :-)

For the code that I write, and that I want to stand by for as long as it exists, I just can't justify the risk enough to use it or recommend it - even in cases where much of the risk is mitigated. I'm all about being cautious and consistent. I'm sure you and I have talked about more than one of these in the past, so I apologize if I'm repeating myself; it's for the benefit of other readers who haven't been privy to those conversations (or had my "Bad Habits to Kick" blog posts shoved down their throats by myself or others over the past few years):

  1. Because some day statements without terminators will be deprecated, even though it may not happen in my lifetime, I always place a semi-colon at the end of every single statement even if - right now - that statement, or the one following it, doesn't require it. (I also always prefix CTEs with a semi-colon, since too many times people have come back and said "I get a syntax error" - which was caused because the preceding statement, where they pasted the code, wasn't properly terminated.) Blog post here.
     
  2. Since the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views are incomplete, and completely disregard most new features, I use the catalog views always, even though in some isolated scenarios I *could* get the answer from INFORMATION_SCHEMA. I don't see the purpose of using something only in the few scenarios where I know it is complete and can't break, and still have to turn elsewhere in all other cases. Even if I am attempting to write code that is cross-platform portable, I can't think of very many useful queries that could use only INFORMATION_SCHEMA and be truly compatible across platforms - and even then, I'm not sure that metadata queries are ever going to be in the top 1000 concerns when migrating between or writing for multiple platforms. Blog post here.
     
  3. I always use 'yyyymmdd' for date literals, even when I know the system is US English and nobody will be using the code under different locale, regional settings, language and dateformat settings, etc. Why? Because someone could take my code with a literal like 09/07/2013, and think that it's safe to use under a British or Canadian locale (and may not notice that I actually meant September 7th, not July 9th). Blog post here.
     
  4. I don't use BETWEEN for any type of date/time range queries, even when I know the underlying data type is DATE or there is a constraint that prevents a time portion other than midnight. I can't control the future of those data types or the eternal presence of those constraints, and since I know an open-ended range (>= beginning and < the day after the end) will *always* work, I see no reason to use BETWEEN in the few scenarios where it will be "okay." Blog post here.

  5. I always use the schema prefix, even in cases where I know objects are only in the dbo schema, and the only users that will execute the code have dbo as their default schema. Again, because someone else may read the code and think it's ok to leave out the schema in general (enough people already think it's ok; I don't need to encourage anyone else). Blog post here.
     
  6. I always set an explicit length when defining variables, like CONVERT(VARCHAR(11), some_int) instead of CONVERT(VARCHAR, some_int). While *I* know that it is safe, because in that specific scenario it's implicitly a VARCHAR(30), there are other cases where it's a VARCHAR(1), and I don't want people to learn that leaving out the length anywhere is ok - because that will just lead to them (or someone that learns from them) to use it in a place where it does matter. The most dangerous thing here is that in some scenarios SQL Server won't even tell you that you lost data; it just silently truncates. Blog post here.
     
  7. I always specify the full names for shorthand such as that used in DATEPART, DATEDD, DATEDIFF, etc. Even though I know MM will never be interpreted as anything other than MONTH, I always type out MONTH. Not just abbreviations like W and Y have completely unexpected outcomes that I've successfully trumped almost every MVP I've asked, but also because it just makes the code that much more self-documenting at absolutely no cost to me. Blog post here.
     
  8. I try to always use explicit DATEADD operations, instead of relying on things like GETDATE()-1. The reason here is simple: the shortcut math does not work with the new types, like DATE and DATETIME2. Same blog post as #7.
     
  9. I use EXEC sp_executesql always, even in cases where it offers no tangible benefits over EXEC(). This is primarily because most people do need those benefits (such as the ability to pass strongly-typed parameters, or retrieve output parameters), or are prone to inevitable syntax errors that ensue when leaving out the parentheses. I see no advantage to only using EXEC() in the few cases where they aren't needed, only to switch gears when they are. Blog post here.
     
  10. Because metadata functions like OBJECT_NAME() don't obey transaction isolation level semantics, I try to avoid them, preferring to use explicit joins to sys.schemas, sys.tables, etc. It ends up with bulkier code, but code that will still work when someone issues the metadata query I've provided under READ UNCOMMITTED during a lengthy index rebuild. (See details about this here.)

I could go on and on and on and on. The point is that I don't like using things when I can only use them in limited scenarios where I know they're safe, and can't trust them the rest of the time. Most of these I handle this way not only to protect my own code and that of my customers, since I may not have any control over what will happen to the code in the future, but also as a mantra for using and demonstrating best practices as much as possible. I don't want to skate by on shortcuts, I don't want my code to *need* disclaimers that say "this is safe only in this scenario because...", and I don't want anyone reading my code to pick up those habits even in cases where it may be okay. There is a massive potential trickle-down effect there, especially for someone answering a lot of questions on Stack Overflow, MSDN forums, etc. This is one of the reasons you see me often pointing out some of the above scenarios in other people's answers - I don't want "the right answer" to include anything that could break for other users in some scenarios (even rare ones). I should write an over-arching blog post that frames all of my "Bad Habits to Kick" and related posts with something along these lines, stressing the importance of not protecting your own code (you may know all the ins and outs of all the above scenarios), but the importance of the things others learn from you.

The fact that the syntax is ANSI standard doesn't make it any more intuitive or familiar, and doesn't really help anyone, with the rare exception of someone coming to SQL Server from a platform that has also implemented MERGE syntax. For me, I see no reason to use it in any scenario, since - aside from the convenience of a single OUTPUT clause, where an OUTPUT clause is even possible - it can't do anything for me that independent statements can't do. What can MERGE do that separate statements can't do, even in cases where concurrency isn't an issue? I will keep writing separate UPDATE and INSERT statements, since I can rely on those with a much higher degree of confidence in all scenarios, and I see no reason to use (or advocate) something that I can't trust in all scenarios, even though I can rely on it in a few.

So, no, I can't condone the use of MERGE in your scenario, and think it is a bad idea in current versions of SQL Server. You, of course, may have different priorities than me.


Sunday, January 26, 2014 - 2:03:12 PM - Gordon Linoff Back To Top (29226)

Aaron,

In the case that you are using MERGE without concurrency and with no triggers on the underlying tables, is it still a bad idea?  Which of the bugs apply in this case?  I would mostly be using MERGE in scheduled database maintenance jobs.

Although I agree with you about the syntax, it is unfortunately based on the ANSI standard.

Cheers


Thursday, November 21, 2013 - 8:30:18 AM - Syed Back To Top (27566)

Hello All,

I have a excel sheet as source and SQL db_table as target , I want to update Table and Insert new records if it is not exist, Through "DATAFLOW TASK" in "SSIS 2008" Please Help me out of this horrible situation 

 

Thanks in Advance


Monday, October 28, 2013 - 11:58:55 AM - Jeff Moden Back To Top (27296)

Awesome article on MERGE, especially concerning how triggers handle it.  Thanks for taking the time to test and post, Aaron.


Monday, October 21, 2013 - 10:22:49 AM - David Stout (dbslave) Back To Top (27211)

Aaron, Thanks for clearing that up, and for the article.


Monday, October 21, 2013 - 7:41:01 AM - Aaron Bertrand Back To Top (27208)

David, this is relevant for SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2014. The only exception would be bugs that have been fixed quietly in newer versions, or as a side effect of some other change (e.g. optimizer improvements).


Sunday, October 20, 2013 - 11:16:33 AM - David Stout (dbslave) Back To Top (27204)

This article addresses SQL 2008 can some one tell me if this is also true of SQL 2008R2?


Sunday, October 20, 2013 - 9:22:35 AM - Aaron Bertrand Back To Top (27202)

Alex, I don't know that any pattern can be made invulnerable to race conditions. This has very little to do with the statements you use, and more to do with the trade-offs you make between isolation level and concurrency. For example, if you wrap several statements in a serializable transaction, conflicts are impossible, but that can really have an impact on transaction throughput.


Sunday, October 20, 2013 - 1:28:04 AM - Alex Friedman Back To Top (27201)

This is very worrying. I really love the MERGE statement, and it's a pity it is so buggy.

What would you say are the best "tried and true methods of separate statements"? I've seen several patterns floating around, and most also vulnerable to race conditions.

 


Friday, October 18, 2013 - 4:31:13 PM - TimothyAWiseman Back To Top (27191)

It is always good to be on the watch for unexpected behavior.  Thanks for pointing some of this out.


Thursday, October 17, 2013 - 2:08:30 PM - Theron Back To Top (27179)

I read this just as I was about to code some upsert logic using merge, so thanks for the warning.  I had a good experience with Oracle's merge on a previous project and was glad to see it implemented in SQL Server as well.   Now I think I'll go ahead and use the separate statements instead!















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