Update documents (Java)

Finds documents in a collection using filter clauses, and then updates properties in those documents. Optionally, if no document matches the filter, inserts a new document.

This method does not support sort parameters, including vector search. If you want to use sort parameters to find documents, use the method to find documents instead. Then, use the method to update a single document to update the found documents by ID.

Ready to write code? See the examples for this method to get started. If you are new to the Data API, check out the quickstart.

Result

Updates documents that match the specified parameters and returns CollectionUpdateResult, which indicates the number of documents that were found and the number of documents that were modified.

If specified, the method inserts a new document if no document matches the filter. In this case, the response also includes the _id of the inserted document.

Parameters

Use the updateMany method, which belongs to the com.datastax.astra.client.Collection class.

Method signature 
CollectionUpdateResult updateMany(
  Filter filter,
  Update update
)
CollectionUpdateResult updateMany(
  Filter filter,
  Update update,
  CollectionUpdateManyOptions options
)
Name Type Summary

filter

Filter

An object that defines filter criteria using the Data API filter syntax. The method only finds documents that match the filter criteria. Filters can improve performance by reducing the number of documents that the Data API processes.

You must use & to escape any . or & in field names in the filter clause. You cannot use & to escape any other characters. For more information, see Work with . and & in field names (Java).

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections (Java).

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

For an example, see Update documents that match a filter.

update

Update

An object that defines the updates using Data API operators.

For a list of available operators and more examples, see Update operators for collections (Java).

You must use & to escape any . or & in field names in the update clause. You cannot use & to escape any other characters. For more information, see Work with . and & in field names (Java).

options

CollectionUpdateManyOptions

Optional. The options for this operation. See Methods of the CollectionUpdateManyOptions class for more details.
Methods of the CollectionUpdateManyOptions class
Method Parameters Summary

upsert()

boolean

Optional. Whether to insert a new document if no document matches the filter criteria.

For an example, see Insert a new document if no matching document exists.

Default: False

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to update documents in a collection.

Update documents that match a filter

You can use a filter to find documents that match specific criteria. For example, you can find documents with an is_checked_out value of false and a number_of_pages value less than 300.

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections (Java).

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClients;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.Update;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.results.CollectionUpdateResult;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filter;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filters;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get an existing collection
    Collection<Document> collection =
        DataAPIClients.clientHCD("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT", "KEYSPACE_NAME")
            .getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");

    // Update documents
    Filter filter =
        Filters.and(Filters.eq("is_checked_out", false), Filters.lt("number_of_pages", 300));
    Update update = Update.create().set("color", "blue");
    CollectionUpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update);
    System.out.println(result.getMatchedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getModifiedCount());
  }
}

Update multiple properties

You can combine multiple operators and properties in a single call. For the full list of operators, see Update operators for collections (Java).

import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClients;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.Update;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.results.CollectionUpdateResult;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filter;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filters;
import java.util.Arrays;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get an existing collection
    Collection<Document> collection =
        DataAPIClients.clientHCD("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT", "KEYSPACE_NAME")
            .getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");

    // Update documents
    Filter filter =
        Filters.and(Filters.eq("is_checked_out", false), Filters.lt("number_of_pages", 300));
    Update update =
        Update.create()
            .set("color", "blue")
            .set("classes", Arrays.asList("biology", "algebra", "swimming"))
            .unset("phone")
            .inc("age", 1.0);
    CollectionUpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update);
    System.out.println(result.getMatchedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getModifiedCount());
  }
}

Update nested properties

To update a nested property, use dot notation. For example, field.subfield.subsubfield.

To update an item in a list, specify a numeric index. For example, listProperty.3.

import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClients;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.Update;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.results.CollectionUpdateResult;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filter;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filters;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get an existing collection
    Collection<Document> collection =
        DataAPIClients.clientHCD("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT", "KEYSPACE_NAME")
            .getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");

    // Update documents
    Filter filter =
        Filters.and(Filters.eq("is_checked_out", false), Filters.lt("number_of_pages", 300));
    Update update =
        Update.create()
            .set("color", "blue")
            .set("address.city", "Austin")
            .set("classes.2", "biology");
    CollectionUpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update);
    System.out.println(result.getMatchedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getModifiedCount());
  }
}

Insert a new document if no matching document exists

You can use upsert to insert a new document if no document matches the filter criteria.

In addition to any fields you explicitly set in the update parameter, the new document also includes any top-level equality conditions from the filter parameter. Equality conditions that are nested within $and from the filter parameter are not included. If a field is defined both in the filter and in the update, the explicitly set value takes precedence.

import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClients;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.Update;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.options.CollectionUpdateManyOptions;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.results.CollectionUpdateResult;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filter;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filters;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get an existing collection
    Collection<Document> collection =
        DataAPIClients.clientHCD("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT", "KEYSPACE_NAME")
            .getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");

    // Update documents
    Filter filter =
        Filters.and(Filters.eq("is_checked_out", false), Filters.lt("number_of_pages", 300));
    Update update = Update.create().set("color", "blue");
    CollectionUpdateManyOptions options = new CollectionUpdateManyOptions().upsert(true);
    CollectionUpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update, options);
    System.out.println(result.getMatchedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getModifiedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getUpsertedId());
  }
}

You can also use the setOnInsert operator to specify additional fields to set if a new document is created:

import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClients;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.Update;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.options.CollectionUpdateManyOptions;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.results.CollectionUpdateResult;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filter;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filters;
import java.util.Map;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get an existing collection
    Collection<Document> collection =
        DataAPIClients.clientHCD("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT", "KEYSPACE_NAME")
            .getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");

    // Update documents
    Filter filter =
        Filters.and(Filters.eq("is_checked_out", false), Filters.lt("number_of_pages", 300));
    Update update =
        Update.create().set("color", "blue").setOnInsert(Map.of("customer.name", "James"));
    CollectionUpdateManyOptions options = new CollectionUpdateManyOptions().upsert(true);
    CollectionUpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update, options);
    System.out.println(result.getMatchedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getModifiedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getUpsertedId());
  }
}

Update more than 20 documents

The client automatically issues multiple Data API HTTP requests to update all documents that match your filter.

Work with . and & in field names

You must use & to escape any . or & in field names when the field is used in a filter, sort, projection, update, or indexing clause. Dot notation, which is used to reference nested fields, should not be escaped. For more information, see Work with . and & in field names (Java).

For example, in the following document, you would use escaping like this: areas.r&&d, costs.price&.usd, and costs.price&.cad.

{
  "areas": {
    "r&d": true,
    "design": false
  },
  "costs": {
    "price.usd": 100,
    "price.cad": 90
  }
}
import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClients;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.Update;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.results.CollectionUpdateResult;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filter;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filters;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get an existing collection
    Collection<Document> collection =
        DataAPIClients.clientHCD("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT", "KEYSPACE_NAME")
            .getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");

    // Find a document
    Filter filter =
        Filters.and(Filters.eq("areas.r&&d", false), Filters.lt("costs.price&.usd", 300));
    Update update = Update.create().set("areas.r&&d", true).set("costs.price&.usd", 310);
    CollectionUpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update);
    System.out.println(result.getMatchedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getModifiedCount());
  }
}

You can also use the escapeFieldNames function provided by the client:

import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClients;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.Update;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.commands.results.CollectionUpdateResult;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filter;
import com.datastax.astra.client.core.query.Filters;
import com.datastax.astra.internal.utils.EscapeUtils;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get an existing collection
    Collection<Document> collection =
        DataAPIClients.clientHCD("USERNAME", "PASSWORD")
            .getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT", "KEYSPACE_NAME")
            .getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");

    // Find a document
    Filter filter =
        Filters.and(
            Filters.eq(EscapeUtils.escapeFieldNames("areas", "r&d"), false),
            Filters.lt(EscapeUtils.escapeFieldNames("costs", "price.usd"), 300));
    Update update =
        Update.create()
            .set(EscapeUtils.escapeFieldNames("areas", "r&d"), true)
            .set(EscapeUtils.escapeFieldNames("costs", "price.usd"), 310);
    CollectionUpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update);
    System.out.println(result.getMatchedCount());
    System.out.println(result.getModifiedCount());
  }
}

Client reference

For more information, see the client reference.

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