Flags:

--help

Print usage summary

--verbose

Verbose module output

--quiet

Quiet module output

--ui

Force launching GUI dialog

Parameters:

map=name [required]

Name of vector map
Or data source for direct OGR access

layer=string [required]

Layer number or name
Vector features can have category values in different layers. This number determines which layer to use. When used with direct OGR access this is the layer name.
Default: 1

column=name [required]

Name of attribute column to update

value=string

Literal value to update the column with

query_column=name

Name of other attribute column to query, can be combination of columns (e.g. co1+col2)

where=sql_query

WHERE conditions of SQL statement without ’where’ keyword
Example: income < 1000 and population >= 10000

sqliteextra=name

Name of SQLite extension file for extra functions (SQLite backend only)

Replacing of NULL values

In this example, selectively display lakes without (blue) and with NULL (red) are shown to find out which type is undefined. In the original map there are lakes missing FTYPE attribute which are wetlands along streams. These NULL attributes are replaced with the landuse type WETLAND:

g.copy vect=lakes,mylakes
v.db.select mylakes
v.db.select mylakes where="FTYPE IS NULL"
# display the lakes, show undefined FTYPE lakes in red
g.region vector=mylakes
d.mon wx0
d.vect mylakes where="FTYPE NOT NULL" type=area col=blue
d.vect mylakes where="FTYPE IS NULL" type=area col=red
# replace NULL with FTYPE WETLAND
v.db.update mylakes col=FTYPE value=WETLAND \


            where="FTYPE IS NULL"
v.db.select mylakes

Updating of columns with on the fly calculation

Spearfish example: adding new column, copying values from another table column with on the fly calculation:

g.copy vect=fields,myfields
v.db.addcolumn myfields col="polynum integer"
v.db.update myfields col=polynum qcol="cat*2"
v.db.select myfields

Type casting

Type cast (type conversion) of strings to double precision (unsupported by DBF driver):

g.copy vect=geodetic_pts,mygeodetic_pts
v.db.update mygeodetic_pts col=zval qcol="CAST(z_value AS double precision)" \


            where="z_value <> ’N/A’"

Updating of columns with on the fly calculation (SQLite extended functions)

Note: this requires SQLite extended functions. For details see the GRASS GIS Wiki (compilation of libsqlitefunctions.so and libsqlitefunctions.dll).

North Carolina data set example: adding new column, copying values from another table column with on the fly calculation:

g.copy vect=precip_30ynormals,myprecip_30ynormals
v.db.addcolumn myprecip_30ynormals column="logjuly double precision"
v.db.update myprecip_30ynormals column="logjuly" query_column="log(jul)" \


  sqliteextra=$HOME/sqlite_extensions/libsqlitefunctions.so
v.db.select myprecip_30ynormals columns=jul,logjuly
jul|logjuly
132.842|4.88916045210132
127|4.84418708645859
124.206|4.82194147751127
104.648|4.65060233738593
98.298|4.58800368106618
...