Recovery after wrong MySQL update query?

Question

I made a wrong update query in my table.

I forgot to make an id field in the WHERE clause.

So that updated all my rows.

How to recover that?

I didn't have a backup....

Answer 1

There are two lessons to be learned here:

1. Backup data
2. Perform UPDATE/DELETE statements within a transaction, so you can use ROLLBACK if things don't go as planned

Being aware of the transaction (autocommit, explicit and implicit) handling for your database can save you from having to restore data from a backup.

Transactions control data manipulation statement(s) to ensure they are atomic. Being "atomic" means the transaction either occurs, or it does not. The only way to signal the completion of the transaction to database is by using either a COMMIT or ROLLBACK statement (per ANSI-92, which sadly did not include syntax for creating/beginning a transaction so it is vendor specific). COMMIT applies the changes (if any) made within the transaction. ROLLBACK disregards whatever actions took place within the transaction - highly desirable when an UPDATE/DELETE statement does something unintended.

Typically individual DML (Insert, Update, Delete) statements are performed in an autocommit transaction - they are committed as soon as the statement successfully completes. Which means there's no opportunity to roll back the database to the state prior to the statement having been run in cases like yours. When something goes wrong, the only restoration option available is to reconstruct the data from a backup (providing one exists). In MySQL, autocommit is on by default for InnoDB - MyISAM doesn't support transactions. It can be disabled by using:

SET autocommit = 0

An explicit transaction is when statement(s) are wrapped within an explicitly defined transaction code block - for MySQL, that's START TRANSACTION. It also requires an explicitly made COMMIT or ROLLBACK statement at the end of the transaction. Nested transactions is beyond the scope of this topic.

Implicit transactions are slightly different from explicit ones. Implicit transactions do not require explicity defining a transaction. However, like explicit transactions they require a COMMIT or ROLLBACK statement to be supplied.

Conclusion

Explicit transactions are the most ideal solution - they require a statement, COMMIT or ROLLBACK, to finalize the transaction, and what is happening is clearly stated for others to read should there be a need. Implicit transactions are OK if working with the database interactively, but COMMIT statements should only be specified once results have been tested & thoroughly determined to be valid.

That means you should use:

SET autocommit = 0;

START TRANSACTION;
  UPDATE ...;

...and only use COMMIT; when the results are correct.

That said, UPDATE and DELETE statements typically only return the number of rows affected, not specific details. Convert such statements into SELECT statements & review the results to ensure correctness prior to attempting the UPDATE/DELETE statement.

Addendum

DDL (Data Definition Language) statements are automatically committed - they do not require a COMMIT statement. IE: Table, index, stored procedure, database, and view creation or alteration statements.

Answer 2

Sorry man, but the chances of restoring an overwritten MySQL database are usually close to zero. Different from deleting a file, overwriting a record actually and physically overwrites the existing data in most cases.

To be prepared if anything comes up here, you should stop your MySQL server, and make a copy of the physical directory containing the database so nothing can get overwritten further: A simple copy+paste of the data folder to a different location should do.

But don't get your hopes up - I think there's nothing that can be done really.

You may want to set up a frequent database backup for the future. There are many solutions around; one of the simplest, most reliable and easiest to automate (using at or cron in Linux, or the task scheduler in Windows) is MySQL's own mysqldump.