endDelimiter
SQL attribute
endDelimiter
is an attribute that lets you specify a delimiter to separate raw SQL statements in your changesets. When you run commands like update
or rollback
, Liquibase first parses any raw SQL you want to execute. Liquibase looks for the endDelimiter
string in each changeset and splits the SQL on the endDelimter
boundary. This ensures that your database receives only one SQL statement at a time, even if your raw SQL contains many statements.
You can use endDelimiter
in a individual changeset containing the sql
or sqlFile
Change Types. endDelimiter
is valid in Formatted SQL, XML, YAML, and JSON changelogs. The default value is ;
(semicolon). Your custom delimiter can be a combination of one or more letters, symbols, and/or numbers, or the empty string.
If your SQL only contains one semicolon at the end of every statement (or only one statement with no semicolon), you don't have to specify a custom delimiter. However, if your SQL embeds stored logic containing one or more semicolons, Liquibase incorrectly parses your SQL as multiple statements, causing an error. You can set a different delimiter to prevent Liquibase from processing incomplete SQL statements.
Tip: It is a best practice not to use endDelimiter
on changesets you are running with a native executor.
Also, when running SQL with the execute-sql
command, you can specify a delimiter with the --delimiter
argument.
You can also use the rollbackEndDelimiter
attribute on sql
and sqlFile
Change Types in your changelog. This lets you specify a delimiter for rollback SQL. It is only valid in Formatted SQL changelogs.
Uses
The following examples demonstrate use of the endDelimiters
SQL attribute:
Use endDelimiter
in SQL for PROCEDURE
and FUNCTION
An endDelimiter
can be used when the changeset contains SQL to create a stored procedure or function that contains the default ';'
end delimiter. To avoid incomplete statements being sent to the database, the changeset must be marked to have a different endDelimiter
.
Use endDelimiter
for some DBMS systems to run multiple statements
The endDelimiter
must be specified for some dbms systems to run multiple statements.
Syntax
Note: All changelog attributes use the camelCase
format.
Escaping an endDelimiter
When setting an endDelimiter
, note that certain DBMS and operating systems require delimiter values to be escaped. For example, a $$
endDelimiter
with mysql
requires escaping as: endDelimiter="\$\$"
. A Liquibase migration error indicates the delimiter that needs to be escaped would be:
Unexpected error running Liquibase: Migration failed for change set <changelog>::<id>::<author>:
Reason: liquibase.exception.DatabaseException: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '$$$

--liquibase formatted sql
--changeset your.name:101 endDelimiter:/
CREATE FUNCTION calcProfit2(cost FLOAT, price FLOAT)
RETURNS DECIMAL(9,2)
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE profit DECIMAL(9,2);
SET profit = price-cost;
RETURN profit;
END
/
CREATE FUNCTION calcProfit3(cost FLOAT, price FLOAT) RETURNS DECIMAL(9,3)
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE profit DECIMAL(9,3);
SET profit = price-cost;
RETURN profit;
END
/

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">
<changeSet author="your.name" id="sql-example">
<sql dbms="mysql" splitStatements="true" endDelimiter="/" stripComments="true">
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS calcProfit;
/
CREATE FUNCTION calcProfit(cost FLOAT, price FLOAT) RETURNS DECIMAL(9,2)
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE profit DECIMAL(9,2);
SET profit = price-cost;
RETURN profit;
END
/
</sql>
</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
id: 1001
author: your.name
changes:
- sql:
endDelimiter: "@@"
splitStatements: true
sql: DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS calcProfit9; @@ CREATE FUNCTION calcProfit9(cost FLOAT, price FLOAT) RETURNS DECIMAL(9,2) DETERMINISTIC BEGIN DECLARE profit DECIMAL(9,2); SET profit = price-cost; RETURN profit; END @@
stripComments: true

{
"databaseChangeLog":[
{
"changeSet":{
"id":"1001",
"author":"your.name",
"changes":[
{
"sql":{
"endDelimiter":"@@",
"dbms":"mysql",
"splitStatements":true,
"sql":"DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS calcProfit;\n@@\nCREATE FUNCTION calcProfit(cost FLOAT, price FLOAT) RETURNS DECIMAL(9,2)\nDETERMINISTIC\nBEGIN\nDECLARE profit DECIMAL(9,2);\nSET profit = price-cost;\nRETURN profit;\nEND\n@@",
"stripComments":true
}
}
]
}
}
]
}