How to execute a raw update sql with dynamic binding in rails

ActiveRecord::Base.connection has a quote method that takes a string value (and optionally the column object). So you can say this:

ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(<<-EOQ)
  UPDATE  foo
  SET     bar = #{ActiveRecord::Base.connection.quote(baz)}
EOQ

Note if you're in a Rails migration or an ActiveRecord object you can shorten that to:

connection.execute(<<-EOQ)
  UPDATE  foo
  SET     bar = #{connection.quote(baz)}
EOQ

UPDATE: As @kolen points out, you should use exec_update instead. This will handle the quoting for you and also avoid leaking memory. The signature works a bit differently though:

connection.exec_update(<<-EOQ, "SQL", [[nil, baz]])
  UPDATE  foo
  SET     bar = $1
EOQ

Here the last param is a array of tuples representing bind parameters. In each tuple, the first entry is the column type and the second is the value. You can give nil for the column type and Rails will usually do the right thing though.

There are also exec_query, exec_insert, and exec_delete, depending on what you need.

None of the other answers showed me how to use named parameters, so I ended up combining exec_update with sanitize_sql:

User.connection.exec_update(
  User.sanitize_sql(
    [
      "update users set name = :name where id = :id and name <> :name",
      {
        id: 123,
        name: 'My Name'
      }
    ]
  )
)

This works for me on Rails 5, and it executes this SQL:

update users set name = 'My Name' where id = 123 and name <> 'My Name'

You need to use an existing Rails model instead of User if you don't have that.

I wanted to use named parameters to avoid issues with the ordering when I use ? or $1/$2,etc. Positional ordering is kind of frustrating when I have more than a handful of parameters, but named parameters allow me to refactor the SQL command without having to update the parameters.

You should just use something like:

YourModel.update_all(
  ActiveRecord::Base.send(:sanitize_sql_for_assignment, {:value => "'wow'"})
)

That would do the trick. Using the ActiveRecord::Base#send method to invoke the sanitize_sql_for_assignment makes the Ruby (at least the 1.8.7 version) skip the fact that the sanitize_sql_for_assignment is actually a protected method.

Sometime would be better use name of parent class instead name of table:

# Refers to the current class
self.class.unscoped.where(self.class.primary_key => id).update_all(created _at: timestamp)

For example "Person" base class, subclasses (and database tables) "Client" and "Seller" Instead using:

Client.where(self.class.primary_key => id).update_all(created _at: timestamp)
Seller.where(self.class.primary_key => id).update_all(created _at: timestamp)

You can use object of base class by this way:

person.class.unscoped.where(self.class.primary_key => id).update_all(created _at: timestamp)

Here's a trick I recently worked out for executing raw sql with binds:

binds = SomeRecord.bind(a_string_field: value1, a_date_field: value2) +
        SomeOtherRecord.bind(a_numeric_field: value3)
SomeRecord.connection.exec_query <<~SQL, nil, binds
  SELECT *
  FROM some_records
  JOIN some_other_records ON some_other_records.record_id = some_records.id
  WHERE some_records.a_string_field = $1
    AND some_records.a_date_field < $2
    AND some_other_records.a_numeric_field > $3
SQL

where ApplicationRecord defines this:

# Convenient way of building custom sql binds
def self.bind(column_values)
  column_values.map do |column_name, value|
    [column_for_attribute(column_name), value]
  end
end

and that is similar to how AR binds its own queries.