Documentation for new upsert v.s insert-replace

Refs #66

docs/cli.rst

@@ -265,6 +265,8 @@ For tab-delimited data, use ``--tsv``::
 
     $ sqlite-utils insert dogs.db dogs docs.tsv --tsv
 
+.. _cli_insert_replace:
+
 Insert-replacing data
 =====================
 
@@ -277,6 +279,27 @@ After running the above ``dogs.json`` example, try running this::
 
 This will replace the record for id=2 (Pancakes) with a new record with an updated age.
 
+.. _cli_upsert:
+
+Upserting data
+==============
+
+Upserting is update-or-insert. If a row exists with the specified primary key the provided columns will be updated. If no row exists that row will be created.
+
+Unlike ``insert --replace``, an upsert will ignore any column values that exist but are not present in the upsert document.
+
+For example::
+
+    $ echo '{"id": 2, "age": 4}' | \
+        sqlite-utils upsert dogs.db dogs - --pk=id
+
+This will update the dog with id=2 to have an age of 4, creating a new record (with a null name) if one does not exist. If a row DOES exist the name will be left as-is.
+
+The command will fail if you reference columns that do not exist on the table. To automatically create missing columns, use the ``--alter`` option.
+
+.. note::
+    ``upsert`` in sqlite-utils 1.x worked like ``insert ... --replace`` does in 2.x. See `issue #66 <https://github.com/simonw/sqlite-utils/issues/66>`__ for details of this change.
+
 .. _cli_add_column:
 
 Adding columns

docs/python-api.rst

@@ -358,6 +358,30 @@ The function can accept an iterator or generator of rows and will commit them ac
 
 You can skip inserting any records that have a primary key that already exists using ``ignore=True``. This works with both ``.insert({...}, ignore=True)`` and ``.insert_all([...], ignore=True)``.
 
+.. _python_api_insert_replace:
+
+Insert-replacing data
+=====================
+
+If you want to insert a record or replace an existing record with the same primary key, using the ``replace=True`` argument to ``.insert()`` or ``.insert_all()``::
+
+    dogs.insert_all([{
+        "id": 1,
+        "name": "Cleo",
+        "twitter": "cleopaws",
+        "age": 3,
+        "is_good_dog": True,
+    }, {
+        "id": 2,
+        "name": "Marnie",
+        "twitter": "MarnieTheDog",
+        "age": 16,
+        "is_good_dog": True,
+    }], pk="id", replace=True)
+
+.. note::
+    Prior to sqlite-utils 2.x the ``.upsert()`` and ``.upsert_all()`` methods did this. See :ref:`python_api_upsert` for the new behaviour of those methods in 2.x.
+
 .. _python_api_update:
 
 Updating a specific record
@@ -409,6 +433,8 @@ You can delete all records in a table that match a specific WHERE statement usin
 
 Calling ``table.delete_where()`` with no other arguments will delete every row in the table.
 
+.. _python_api_upsert:
+
 Upserting data
 ==============
 
@@ -428,10 +454,15 @@ For example, given the dogs database you could upsert the record for Cleo like s
 
 If a record exists with id=1, it will be updated to match those fields. If it does not exist it will be created.
 
+Any existing columns that are not referenced in the dictionary passed to ``.upsert()`` will be unchanged. If you want to replace a record entirely, use ``.insert(doc, replace=True)`` instead.
+
 Note that the ``pk`` and ``column_order`` parameters here are optional if you are certain that the table has already been created. You should pass them if the table may not exist at the time the first upsert is performed.
 
 An ``upsert_all()`` method is also available, which behaves like ``insert_all()`` but performs upserts instead.
 
+.. note::
+    ``.upsert()`` and ``.upsert_all()`` in sqlite-utils 1.x worked like ``.insert(..., replace=True)`` and ``.insert_all(..., replace=True)`` do in 2.x. See `issue #66 <https://github.com/simonw/sqlite-utils/issues/66>`__ for details of this change.
+
 .. _python_api_lookup_tables:
 
 Working with lookup tables