What happens when update_all fails?

Question

There is update_all method in RoR

And what does it return if it update_all fails? will it raise an exception?

For example:

ActiveRecord::Base.transaction do
  users = User.active
  users.update_all avatar: 'blablablb'
end

Answer 1

update_all is one of many methods that skip validations and callbacks. So any ActiveRecord validations simply won't be run when calling update_all.

However, if the update_all call doesn't conform to a constraint at the database level, or otherwise triggers an exception in your database, then ActiveRecord will throw a ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid exception and will break from the update_all without returning a value, like any other exception.

Other ActiveRecord methods that skip validations include:

• decrement!
• decrement_counter
• increment!
• increment_counter
• toggle!
• touch
• update_attribute
• update_column
• update_counters