The ON CONFLICT clause is not a separate SQL command. It is a non-standard clause
that can appear in many
other SQL commands. It is given its own section in this
document because it is not part of standard SQL and therefore might not be familiar.
The syntax for the ON CONFLICT clause is as shown above for the CREATE TABLE command.
For the INSERT and UPDATE commands, the keywords "ON CONFLICT" are replaced by "OR",
to make the syntax seem more natural. For example, instead of "INSERT ON CONFLICT
IGNORE" we have "INSERT OR IGNORE". The keywords change but the meaning of the clause
is the same either way.
The ON CONFLICT clause specifies an algorithm used to resolve constraint conflicts.
There are five choices: ROLLBACK, ABORT, FAIL, IGNORE, and REPLACE. The default
algorithm is ABORT. This is what they mean:
ROLLBACK
When a constraint violation occurs, an immediate ROLLBACK occurs, thus ending the
current transaction, and the command aborts with a return code of SQLITE_CONSTRAINT.
If no transaction is active (other than the implied transaction that is created
on every command) then this algorithm works the same as ABORT.
ABORT
When a constraint violation occurs, the command backs out any prior changes it might
have made and aborts with a return code of SQLITE_CONSTRAINT. But no ROLLBACK is
executed so changes from prior commands within the same transaction are preserved.
This is the default behavior.
When a constraint violation occurs, the command aborts with a return code SQLITE_CONSTRAINT.
But any changes to the database that the command made prior to encountering the
constraint violation are preserved and are not backed out. For example, if an UPDATE
statement encountered a constraint violation on the 100th row that it attempts to
update, then the first 99 row changes are preserved but changes to rows 100 and
beyond never occur.
IGNORE
When a constraint violation occurs, the one row that contains the constraint violation
is not inserted or changed. But the command continues executing normally. Other
rows before and after the row that contained the constraint violation continue to
be inserted or updated normally. No error is returned.
REPLACE
When a UNIQUE constraint violation occurs, the pre-existing rows that are causing
the constraint violation are removed prior to inserting or updating the current
row. Thus the insert or update always occurs. The command continues executing normally.
No error is returned. If a NOT NULL constraint violation occurs, the NULL value
is replaced by the default value for that column. If the column has no default value,
then the ABORT algorithm is used. If a CHECK constraint violation occurs then the
IGNORE algorithm is used.
When this conflict resolution strategy deletes rows in order to satisfy a constraint,
it does not invoke delete triggers on those rows. This behavior might change in
a future release.
The algorithm specified in the OR clause of a INSERT or UPDATE overrides any algorithm
specified in a CREATE TABLE. If no algorithm is specified anywhere, the ABORT algorithm
is used.