Parameter-Ordered Updates

The UPDATE query of raw SQL has SET clause. It is rendered by the update() construct using the column ordering given in the originating Table object. Therefore, a particular UPDATE statement with particular columns will be rendered the same each time. Since the parameters themselves are passed to the Update.values() method as Python dictionary keys, there is no other fixed ordering available.

In some cases, the order of parameters rendered in the SET clause are significant. In MySQL, providing updates to column values is based on that of other column values.

Following statement’s result −

UPDATE table1 SET x = y + 10, y = 20

will have a different result than −

UPDATE table1 SET y = 20, x = y + 10

SET clause in MySQL is evaluated on a per-value basis and not on per-row basis. For this purpose, the preserve_parameter_order is used. Python list of 2-tuples is given as argument to the Update.values() method −

stmt = table1.update(preserve_parameter_order = True).\
   values([(table1.c.y, 20), (table1.c.x, table1.c.y + 10)])

The List object is similar to dictionary except that it is ordered. This ensures that the “y” column’s SET clause will render first, then the “x” column’s SET clause.