Substituting Properties in Changelogs

Liquibase allows a dynamic substitution of properties in your changelog. The tokens to replace in your changelog are described using the ${property-name} syntax.

Uses

By substituting values for replacement tokens in the format of ${property-name}, you can use the same changesets to reflect small environmental changes.

For example, your tablespace name in Oracle may differ from environment to environment, but you want to only write one create table changeset that can be used in all of your environments. This makes it easier to manage changes without duplicating changesets for each environment.

Using property substitution in your changelog

You can set property values in Liquibase in several ways. Liquibase assigns these values in the following order:

1. As an attribute passed to your Liquibase runner. See the Ant, Maven, or Servlet Listener documentation for more information on how to pass them.
2. As a JVM system property. See JAVA_OPTS Environment Variable for more information.
3. As an environment variable. See Liquibase Environment Variables for more information.
4. As a CLI attribute, if executed from the command line. Use the syntax liquibase <command.name> -D<property.name>=<property.value>. On Windows, surround the property name in quotation marks if it contains a dot. For example: -D"property.name"=value.
5. In the parameters block (property element of the changelog file itself).

Once a property has been set, it cannot be changed. Also, only the first definition is used, others are skipped.

Note: If the content of ${property-name} does not match a property, it is left as-is and it is not removed. The supported format includes alphanumeric characters, +, -, . , and _.

Defining properties with contexts

You can define multiple values for the same property by associating each with a specific context. Looking at the following example code, when Liquibase runs with --context=DEV, the ${tblsp.name} token will be replaced with tblsp_cms_dev. This lets you safely use a single changelog across all environments.

Be sure to place <property> tags at the beginning of the changelog, before any <changeSet> definitions.

<property name="tblsp.name" value="tblsp_cms_dev" context="DEV"/>
<property name="tblsp.name" value="tblsp_cms_test" context="TEST"/>
<property name="tblsp.name" value="tblsp_cms_qa" context="QA"/>
<property name="tblsp.name" value="tblsp_cms" context="UAT,PROD"/>

Example Changelog with context-based properties

The first 3 lines of this example changelog provide an additional example of context-based properties being used.

<property name="TS_NAME" value="DEV_TS" context="DEV"/>
<property name="TS_NAME" value="TEST_TS" context="TEST"/>
<property name="TS_NAME" value="PROD_TS" context="PROD"/>

<changeSet id="27" author="liquibase">
<createTable tableName="actor" tablespace="${TS_NAME}">
<column name="id" type="INTEGER"/>
<column name="firstname" type="VARCHAR(255)"/>
<column name="lastname" type="VARCHAR(255)"/>
<column name="twitter" type="VARCHAR(15)"/>
</createTable>
</changeSet>

Example CLI and properties file usage

The following examples show different ways to assign values to your changelog properties depending on how you're running Liquibase. Choose the approach that best fits your workflow or automation needs.

Liquibase Properties file — Useful for teams or CI/CD pipelines where you want a reusable, version-controlled configuration.

parameter.TS_NAME=DEV_TS

Command Line (CLI) Attribute — Good for quick, one-off executions or scripting where you want to override values dynamically at runtime.

liquibase update -DTS_NAME=DEV_TS

Environment Variable — Ideal for environments where sensitive values (like credentials or paths) are managed securely by the OS or deployment system. Especially common in containerized or cloud environments.

export TS_NAME=DEV_TS

sql and sqlFile

You can use substitution in both sql and sqlFile Change Types.

• sql: Substitution happens before the checksum is calculated.

• sqlFile : Substitution happens after the checksum is calculated.

This means if you use runOnChange="true" and change the value of a substituted property, the sql changeset will rerun, but the sqlFile changeset may not unless the file content itself changes.

Nested properties

Available attributes

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset example:1
CREATE TABLE ${schema.name}.person
( id int primary key,
  first_name varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  last_name varchar(50) NOT NULL
)

databaseChangeLog:
  -  property:
        dbms:  oracle,postgresql
        name:  clob.type
        value:  clob
  -  property:
        dbms:  mysql,mariadb
        name:  clob.type
        value:  longtext
  -  property:
        name:  table.name
        value:  tableA
  -  changeSet:
          id:  1
          author:  joe
          dbms: mariadb
          changes:
          -  createTable:
               tableName:  ${table.name}
               columns:
                 -  column:
                      name:  id
                      type:  int
                 -  column:
                      name:  Column1
                      type:  ${clob.type}
                 -  column:
                      name:  Column2
                      type:  int

{
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "property": {
        "_name": "clob.type",
        "_value": "clob",
        "_dbms": "oracle,postgresql"
      }
    },
    {
      "property": {
        "_name": "clob.type",
        "_value": "longtext",
        "_dbms": "mysql"
      }
    },
    {
      "property": {
        "_name": "table.name",
        "_value": "tableA"
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "1",
        "author": "joe",
        "dbms": "mariadb",
        "changes": [
          {
            "createTable": {
              "tableName": "${table.name}",
              "columns": [
                {
                  "column": {
                    "name": "id",
                    "type": "int"
                  }
                },
                {
                  "column": {
                    "name": "Column1",
                    "type": "${clob.type}"
                  }
                },
                {
                  "column": {
                    "name": "Column2",
                    "type": "int"
                  }
                }
              ]
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

<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">
						
    <property  name="clob.type"  value="clob"  dbms="oracle,postgresql"/>
    <property  name="clob.type"  value="longtext"  dbms="mysql"/>
    <property  name="table.name"  value="tableA"/>

    <changeSet  id="1"  author="joe" dbms="mariadb">
        <createTable tableName="${table.name}">
            <column  name="id"  type="int"/>
            <column  name="Column1"  type="${clob.type}"/>
            <column  name="Column2"  type="int"/>
        </createTable>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

Related links

• property-substitution-enabled