INSERT multiple records using ruby on rails active record

mysql ruby-on-rails ruby activerecord insert
JZ. picture JZ. · Apr 5, 2012 · Viewed 35.6k times · Source

Is there a way to INSERT multiple records rather than one at a time?

I have a very very ugly rake task that is doing the following ...

        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2000-03-07", :party => row[45], :participate => participated(row[45]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2000-11-07", :party => row[46], :participate => participated(row[46])) 
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "SP", :election => "2000-05-08", :party => row[47], :participate => participated(row[47]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2001-11-06", :party => row[48], :participate => participated(row[48]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2002-05-07", :party => row[49], :participate => participated(row[49]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2002-11-05", :party => row[50], :participate => participated(row[50]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "SP", :election => "2003-05-06", :party => row[51], :participate => participated(row[51]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2003-11-04", :party => row[52], :participate => participated(row[52]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2004-03-02", :party => row[53], :participate => participated(row[53]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2004-11-02", :party => row[54], :participate => participated(row[54]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "SP", :election => "2005-02-08", :party => row[55], :participate => participated(row[55]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2005-05-03", :party => row[56], :participate => participated(row[56]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2005-09-13", :party => row[57], :participate => participated(row[56]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2005-11-08", :party => row[58], :participate => participated(row[58]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "SP", :election => "2006-02-07", :party => row[59], :participate => participated(row[59]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2006-05-02", :party => row[60], :participate => participated(row[60]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2006-11-07", :party => row[61], :participate => participated(row[61]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2007-05-08", :party => row[62], :participate => participated(row[62]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2007-09-11", :party => row[63], :participate => participated(row[63]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2007-11-06", :party => row[64], :participate => participated(row[64]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2007-11-06", :party => row[65], :participate => participated(row[65]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2007-12-11", :party => row[66], :participate => participated(row[66]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2008-03-04", :party => row[67], :participate => participated(row[67]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2008-10-14", :party => row[68], :participate => participated(row[68]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2008-11-04", :party => row[69], :participate => participated(row[69]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2008-11-18", :party => row[70], :participate => participated(row[70]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2009-05-05", :party => row[71], :participate => participated(row[71]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2009-09-08", :party => row[72], :participate => participated(row[72]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2009-09-15", :party => row[73], :participate => participated(row[73]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2009-09-29", :party => row[74], :participate => participated(row[74]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2009-11-03", :party => row[75], :participate => participated(row[75]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2010-05-04", :party => row[76], :participate => participated(row[76]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2010-07-13", :party => row[77], :participate => participated(row[77]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2010-09-07", :party => row[78], :participate => participated(row[78]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2010-11-02", :party => row[79], :participate => participated(row[79]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2011-05-03", :party => row[80], :participate => participated(row[80]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2011-09-13", :party => row[81], :participate => participated(row[81]))
        VoteRecord.create(:prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2011-11-08", :party => row[82], :participate => participated(row[82]))

This has to be extremely inefficient and there must be a better way...

Answer

klump picture klump · Apr 5, 2012

The create method takes also an array as parameter.

VoteRecord.create(
  [
    { :prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "GE", :election => "2011-11-08", :party => row[82], :participate => participated(row[82]) },
    { :prospect_id => prospect.id, :state => "OH", :election_type => "PR", :election => "2011-09-13", :party => row[81], :participate => participated(row[81]) }
    ...
  ]
)

However, this still executes one SQL query per entry instead of a single SQL query. It is more efficent, because it only has to create a single activerecord object under the hood.

If you are inserting many rows from the same client at the same time, use INSERT statements with multiple VALUES lists to insert several rows at a time. This is considerably faster (many times faster in some cases) than using separate single-row INSERT statements. If you are adding data to a nonempty table, you can tune the bulk_insert_buffer_size variable to make data insertion even faster. See Section 5.1.3, “Server System Variables”.

From the mysql page (but I guess it should be the same for other dbs)

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