Laravel Batch Update Multiple Records with SQL Injection Prevention

Laravel developers know that while the framework offers a convenient way to insert multiple records at once, it does not provide a built‑in method to update many rows in a single query.

Unlike ThinkPHP’s saveAll or CodeIgniter’s update_batch, existing Laravel solutions on StackOverflow often ignore SQL‑injection risks.

This article introduces a custom updateBatch method added to an Eloquent model that builds a prepared UPDATE statement using CASE expressions, thereby protecting against injection.

<?php
namespace App\Models;

use DB;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

/**
 * Student model
 */
class Students extends Model
{
    protected $table = 'students';

    // Batch update
    public function updateBatch($multipleData = [])
    {
        try {
            if (empty($multipleData)) {
                throw new \Exception("Data cannot be empty");
            }
            $tableName = DB::getTablePrefix() . $this->getTable(); // table name
            $firstRow  = current($multipleData);
            $updateColumn = array_keys($firstRow);
            // Use id as condition by default, otherwise first column
            $referenceColumn = isset($firstRow['id']) ? 'id' : current($updateColumn);
            unset($updateColumn[0]);
            // Build SQL
            $updateSql = "UPDATE " . $tableName . " SET ";
            $sets      = [];
            $bindings  = [];
            foreach ($updateColumn as $uColumn) {
                $setSql = "`" . $uColumn . "` = CASE ";
                foreach ($multipleData as $data) {
                    $setSql .= "WHEN `" . $referenceColumn . "` = ? THEN ? ";
                    $bindings[] = $data[$referenceColumn];
                    $bindings[] = $data[$uColumn];
                }
                $setSql .= "ELSE `" . $uColumn . "` END ";
                $sets[] = $setSql;
            }
            $updateSql .= implode(', ', $sets);
            $whereIn   = collect($multipleData)->pluck($referenceColumn)->values()->all();
            $bindings  = array_merge($bindings, $whereIn);
            $whereIn   = rtrim(str_repeat('?,', count($whereIn)), ',');
            $updateSql = rtrim($updateSql, ", ") . " WHERE `" . $referenceColumn . "` IN (" . $whereIn . ")";
            // Execute prepared statement
            return DB::update($updateSql, $bindings);
        } catch (\Exception $e) {
            return false;
        }
    }
}

Usage example:

// Data to be batch‑updated
$students = [
    ['id' => 1, 'name' => '张三', 'email' => '[email protected]'],
    ['id' => 2, 'name' => '李四', 'email' => '[email protected]'],
];

// Perform batch update
app(Students::class)->updateBatch($students);

The generated SQL looks like this:

UPDATE pre_students
SET NAME = CASE
    WHEN id = 1 THEN '张三'
    WHEN id = 2 THEN '李四'
    ELSE NAME END,
    email = CASE
    WHEN id = 1 THEN '[email protected]'
    WHEN id = 2 THEN '[email protected]'
    ELSE email END
WHERE id IN (1, 2)

By updating all rows in a single statement, the method greatly improves efficiency compared with looping individual updates.