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Insert, Upsert & Delete

This guide walks you through the data manipulation operations within a collection, including insertion, upsertion, and deletion.

Before you start

  • You have installed the SDK of your choice. To install an SDK, refer to Install SDKs.

  • You have created a collection. To create a collection, refer to Manage Collections.

  • To insert a large volume of data, you are advised to use Data Import.

Overview

An entity, within the context of Milvus collections, is a singular, identifiable instance within a collection. It represents a distinct member of a particular class, be it a book in a library, a gene in a genome, or any other identifiable entity.

Entities within a collection share a common set of attributes, termed schema, outlining the structure that each entity must adhere to, including field names, data types, and any other constraints.

Successful insertion of entities into a collection requires that the provided data should contain all the schema-defined fields of the target collection. Additionally, you can also include non-schema-defined fields only if you have enabled the dynamic field. For details, refer to Enable Dynamic Field.

The code snippets on this page use new MilvusClient (Python) to interact with Milvus. New MilvusClient SDKs for other languages will be released in future updates.

Preparations

The code snippet below repurposes the existing code to establish a connection to a Milvus cluster and quickly set up a collection.

from pymilvus import MilvusClient

# 1. Set up a Milvus client
client = MilvusClient(
    uri="http://localhost:19530"
)

# 2. Create a collection
client.create_collection(
    collection_name="quick_setup",
    dimension=5,
    metric_type="IP"
)

notes

The collection generated in the above code contains only two fields: id (as the primary key) and vector (as the vector field), with autoid and enabledynamic_field settings enabled by default. When inserting data,

  • You do not need to include id in the data to be inserted, because the primary field automatically increments as data is inserted.

  • Non-schema-defined fields will be saved as key-value pairs in a reserved JSON field named $meta.

Insert entities

To insert entities, you need to organize the data into a list of dictionaries, where each dictionary represents an entity. Each dictionary contains the keys corresponding to both pre-defined and dynamic fields in the target collection.

# 3. Insert some data
data=[
    {"id": 0, "vector": [0.3580376395471989, -0.6023495712049978, 0.18414012509913835, -0.26286205330961354, 0.9029438446296592], "color": "pink_8682"},
    {"id": 1, "vector": [0.19886812562848388, 0.06023560599112088, 0.6976963061752597, 0.2614474506242501, 0.838729485096104], "color": "red_7025"},
    {"id": 2, "vector": [0.43742130801983836, -0.5597502546264526, 0.6457887650909682, 0.7894058910881185, 0.20785793220625592], "color": "orange_6781"},
    {"id": 3, "vector": [0.3172005263489739, 0.9719044792798428, -0.36981146090600725, -0.4860894583077995, 0.95791889146345], "color": "pink_9298"},
    {"id": 4, "vector": [0.4452349528804562, -0.8757026943054742, 0.8220779437047674, 0.46406290649483184, 0.30337481143159106], "color": "red_4794"},
    {"id": 5, "vector": [0.985825131989184, -0.8144651566660419, 0.6299267002202009, 0.1206906911183383, -0.1446277761879955], "color": "yellow_4222"},
    {"id": 6, "vector": [0.8371977790571115, -0.015764369584852833, -0.31062937026679327, -0.562666951622192, -0.8984947637863987], "color": "red_9392"},
    {"id": 7, "vector": [-0.33445148015177995, -0.2567135004164067, 0.8987539745369246, 0.9402995886420709, 0.5378064918413052], "color": "grey_8510"},
    {"id": 8, "vector": [0.39524717779832685, 0.4000257286739164, -0.5890507376891594, -0.8650502298996872, -0.6140360785406336], "color": "white_9381"},
    {"id": 9, "vector": [0.5718280481994695, 0.24070317428066512, -0.3737913482606834, -0.06726932177492717, -0.6980531615588608], "color": "purple_4976"}
]

res = client.insert(
    collection_name="quick_setup",
    data=data
)

print(res)

# Output
#
# {
#     "insert_count": 10,
#     "ids": [
#         0,
#         1,
#         2,
#         3,
#         4,
#         5,
#         6,
#         7,
#         8,
#         9
#     ]
# }

Insert into partitions

To insert data into a specific partition, you can specify the name of the partition in the insert request as follows:

# 4. Insert some more data into a specific partition
data=[
    {"id": 10, "vector": [-0.5570353903748935, -0.8997887893201304, -0.7123782431855732, -0.6298990746450119, 0.6699215060604258], "color": "red_1202"},
    {"id": 11, "vector": [0.6319019033373907, 0.6821488267878275, 0.8552303045704168, 0.36929791364943054, -0.14152860714878068], "color": "blue_4150"},
    {"id": 12, "vector": [0.9483947484855766, -0.32294203351925344, 0.9759290319978025, 0.8262982148666174, -0.8351194181285713], "color": "orange_4590"},
    {"id": 13, "vector": [-0.5449109892498731, 0.043511240563786524, -0.25105249484790804, -0.012030655265886425, -0.0010987671273892108], "color": "pink_9619"},
    {"id": 14, "vector": [0.6603339372951424, -0.10866551787442225, -0.9435597754324891, 0.8230244263466688, -0.7986720938400362], "color": "orange_4863"},
    {"id": 15, "vector": [-0.8825129181091456, -0.9204557711667729, -0.935350065513425, 0.5484069690287079, 0.24448151140671204], "color": "orange_7984"},
    {"id": 16, "vector": [0.6285586391568163, 0.5389064528263487, -0.3163366239905099, 0.22036279378888013, 0.15077052220816167], "color": "blue_9010"},
    {"id": 17, "vector": [-0.20151825016059233, -0.905239387635804, 0.6749305353372479, -0.7324272081377843, -0.33007998971889263], "color": "blue_4521"},
    {"id": 18, "vector": [0.2432286610792349, 0.01785636564206139, -0.651356982731391, -0.35848148851027895, -0.7387383128324057], "color": "orange_2529"},
    {"id": 19, "vector": [0.055512329053363674, 0.7100266349039421, 0.4956956543575197, 0.24541352586717702, 0.4209030729923515], "color": "red_9437"}
]

client.create_partition(
    collection_name="quick_setup",
    partition_name="partitionA"
)

res = client.insert(
    collection_name="quick_setup",
    data=data,
    partition_name="partitionA"
)

print(res)

# Output
#
# {
#     "insert_count": 10,
#     "ids": [
#         10,
#         11,
#         12,
#         13,
#         14,
#         15,
#         16,
#         17,
#         18,
#         19
#     ]
# }

The output is a dictionary containing the statistics on the affected entities. For details on partition operations, refer to Manage Partitions.

Upsert entities

Upserting data is a combination of update and insert operations. In Milvus, an upsert operation performs a data-level action to either insert or update an entity based on whether its primary key already exists in a collection. Specifically:

  • If the primary key of the entity already exists in the collection, the existing entity will be overwritten.

  • If the primary key does not exist in the collection, a new entity will be inserted.

# 5. Upsert some data
data=[
    {"id": 0, "vector": [-0.619954382375778, 0.4479436794798608, -0.17493894838751745, -0.4248030059917294, -0.8648452746018911], "color": "black_9898"},
    {"id": 1, "vector": [0.4762662251462588, -0.6942502138717026, -0.4490002642657902, -0.628696575798281, 0.9660395877041965], "color": "red_7319"},
    {"id": 2, "vector": [-0.8864122635045097, 0.9260170474445351, 0.801326976181461, 0.6383943392381306, 0.7563037341572827], "color": "white_6465"},
    {"id": 3, "vector": [0.14594326235891586, -0.3775407299900644, -0.3765479013078812, 0.20612075380355122, 0.4902678929632145], "color": "orange_7580"},
    {"id": 4, "vector": [0.4548498669607359, -0.887610217681605, 0.5655081329910452, 0.19220509387904117, 0.016513983433433577], "color": "red_3314"},
    {"id": 5, "vector": [0.11755001847051827, -0.7295149788999611, 0.2608115847524266, -0.1719167007897875, 0.7417611743754855], "color": "black_9955"},
    {"id": 6, "vector": [0.9363032158314308, 0.030699901477745373, 0.8365910312319647, 0.7823840208444011, 0.2625222076909237], "color": "yellow_2461"},
    {"id": 7, "vector": [0.0754823906014721, -0.6390658668265143, 0.5610517334334937, -0.8986261118798251, 0.9372056764266794], "color": "white_5015"},
    {"id": 8, "vector": [-0.3038434006935904, 0.1279149203380523, 0.503958664270957, -0.2622661156746988, 0.7407627307791929], "color": "purple_6414"},
    {"id": 9, "vector": [-0.7125086947677588, -0.8050968321012257, -0.32608864121785786, 0.3255654958645424, 0.26227968923834233], "color": "brown_7231"}
]

res = client.upsert(
    collection_name='quick_setup',
    data=data
)

print(res)

# Output
#
# {
#     "upsert_count": 10
# }

Upsert data in partitions

To upsert data into a specific partition, you can specify the name of the partition in the insert request as follows:

# 6. Upsert data in partitions
data=[
    {"id": 10, "vector": [0.06998888224297328, 0.8582816610326578, -0.9657938677934292, 0.6527905683627726, -0.8668460657158576], "color": "black_3651"},
    {"id": 11, "vector": [0.6060703043917468, -0.3765080534566074, -0.7710758854987239, 0.36993888322346136, 0.5507513364206531], "color": "grey_2049"},
    {"id": 12, "vector": [-0.9041813104515337, -0.9610546012461163, 0.20033003106083358, 0.11842506351635174, 0.8327356724591011], "color": "blue_6168"},
    {"id": 13, "vector": [0.3202914977909075, -0.7279137773695252, -0.04747830871620273, 0.8266053056909548, 0.8277957187455489], "color": "blue_1672"},
    {"id": 14, "vector": [0.2975811497890859, 0.2946936202691086, 0.5399463833894609, 0.8385334966677529, -0.4450543984655133], "color": "pink_1601"},
    {"id": 15, "vector": [-0.04697464305600074, -0.08509022265734134, 0.9067184632552001, -0.2281912685064822, -0.9747503428652762], "color": "yellow_9925"},
    {"id": 16, "vector": [-0.9363075919673911, -0.8153981031085669, 0.7943039120490902, -0.2093886809842529, 0.0771191335807897], "color": "orange_9872"},
    {"id": 17, "vector": [-0.050451522820639916, 0.18931572752321935, 0.7522886192190488, -0.9071793089474034, 0.6032647330692296], "color": "red_6450"},
    {"id": 18, "vector": [-0.9181544231141592, 0.6700755998126806, -0.014174674636136642, 0.6325780463623432, -0.49662222164032976], "color": "purple_7392"},
    {"id": 19, "vector": [0.11426945899602536, 0.6089190684002581, -0.5842735738352236, 0.057050610092692855, -0.035163433018196244], "color": "pink_4996"}
]

res = client.upsert(
    collection_name="quick_setup",
    data=data,
    partition_name="partitionA"
)

print(res)

# Output
#
# {
#     "upsert_count": 10
# }

The output is a dictionary containing the statistics on the affected entities. For details on partition operations, refer to Manage Partitions.

Delete entities

If an entity is no longer needed, you can delete it from the collection. Milvus offers two ways for you to identify the entities to delete.

  • Delete entities by filter.

    # 7. Delete entities
    res = client.delete(
        collection_name="quick_setup",
        filter="id in [4,5,6]"
    )
    
    print(res)
    
    # Output
    #
    # {
    #     "delete_count": 3
    # }
    
  • Delete entities by IDs.

    The following snippets demonstrate how to delete entities by IDs from a specific partition. It also works if you leave the partition name unspecified.

    res = client.delete(
        collection_name="quick_setup",
        ids=[18, 19],
        partition_name="partitionA"
    )
    
    print(res)
    
    # Output
    #
    # {
    #     "delete_count": 2
    # }
    

For details on how to use filter expressions, refer to Get & Scalar Query.

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