I am doing the following SQL tutorial: http://sql.learncodethehardway.org/book/ex11.html
and in this exercise the author says in the second paragraph:
In this situation, I want to replace my record with another guy but
keep the unique id. Problem is I'd have to either do a DELETE/INSERT
in a transaction to make it atomic, or I'd need to do a full UPDATE.
Could anyone explain to me what the problem is with doing an UPDATE, and when we might choose REPLACE instead of UPDATE?
The UPDATE code:
UPDATE person SET first_name = "Frank", last_name = "Smith", age = 100
WHERE id = 0;
Here is the REPLACE code:
REPLACE INTO person (id, first_name, last_name, age)
VALUES (0, 'Frank', 'Smith', 100);
EDIT: I guess another question I have is why would you ever do a DELETE/INSERT instead of just an UPDATE as is discussed in the quoted section?
According to the documentation, the difference is:
REPLACE works exactly like INSERT, except that if an old row in the table has the same value as a new row for a PRIMARY KEY or a UNIQUE index, the old row is deleted before the new row is inserted.
So what it does:
Try to match the row using one of the available indexes;
If the row doesn't exist already: add a new one;
If the row exists already: delete the existing row and add a new one afterwards.
When might using this become useful over separate insert and update statements?
You can safely call this, and you don't have to worry about existing rows (one statement vs. two);
If you want related data to be removed when inserting / updating, you can use replace: it deletes all related data too);
When triggers need to fire, and you expect an insert (bad reason, okay).
First Replace isn't widely understood in all database engines.
Second replace inserts/updates a record based on the primary key. While with update you can specify more elaborate conditions:
UPDATE person SET first_name = 'old ' + first_name WHERE age > 50
Also UPDATE won't create records.
UPDATE will have no effect if the row does not exist.
Where as the INSERT or REPLACE will insert if the row doesn't exists or replace the values if it does.
Update will change the existing records value in table based on particular condition. So you can change one or many records in single query.
Insert or Replace will insert a new record if records is not present in table else will replace. Replace will only work if and only if you provide the primary key value in the insert or replace query. If you forget to add primary key field value than a new record will created in table.
Case example:-
Update: You have a calculation of wages to be done based on a formula using the column values. In this case you will always use update query as using one single query you can update multiple records.
Insert or Replace: Already mentioned in the link you shared.
How the REPLACE INTO statement works:
AS INSERT:
REPLACE INTO table_name (column1name, column2name, ...)
VALUES (value1, value2, ...);
AS UPDATE:
REPLACE INTO table_name SET column1name = value, column2name = value, ... ;
The REPLACE statement checks whether the intended data record's unique key value already exists in the table before inserting it as a new record or updating it.
The REPLACE INTO statement attempts to insert a new record or modify an existing record. In both cases, it checks whether the unique key of the proposed record already exists in the table. Suppose a value of NO or FALSE is returne. In that case, the REPLACE statement inserts the record similar to the INSERT INTO statement.
Suppose the key value already exists in the table (in other words, a duplicate key). In that case, the REPLACE statement deletes the existing record of data and replaces it with a new record of data. This happens regardless of whether you use the first or the second REPLACE statement syntax.
Once the REPLACE INTO statement is used to insert or modify data, it determines first whether the new data record already exists in the table. It checks if the PRIMARY or the UNIQUE KEY matches one of the existing records.
If there is no matching key, the REPLACE works like a normal INSERT statement. Otherwise, it deletes the existing record and replaces it with the new one. This is considered a sort of modification or update of an existing record. However, it would be best if you were careful here. Suppose you do not specify a value for a column in the SET clause. In that case, the REPLACE statement uses the default value (if a default value has been set). Otherwise, it's set as NULL.
Related
So, I have an insert statement to insert data into my database by implode() an array
$sql->prepared("INSERT INTO student(studentId,studentemail,phone,address)VALUE".implode(',', array());
The problem is every time I run the script I have to delete every row from my database because my array already have the values stored in the database plus the new values which I want to insert. So, I want to implement an query in which if existed don't Insert. I am not sure how to play with it.
You can use insert on duplicate key. First you need a unique index. I am guessing:
create unique index unq_student_studentid on student(studentid);
insert into student (studentId, studentemail, phone, address)
value . . .
on duplicate key studentid = values(studentid);
This will ignore existing data. Using the same method, you can also update the other fields, if you prefer the newer values.
That said, inserting the data every time seems like a poorly designed application.
Create a unique index on studentid (it probably should already be the primary key) and then use INSERT IGNORE instead of ordinary INSERT. This just skips any rows that would violate the unique constraint.
This seems like it should be simple, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it. Let's say I have a table with 5,000 rows, each with an ID (primary key) of 1–5000. I am blindly inserting a new value with an existing ID, and it could be something like 2677. What I want to happen is that if the ID already exists, it will use the auto_increment value, in this case 5001. That or the maximum existing value + 1.
Most importantly, I can't use PHP (or anything else other than SQL) to do this, because the output is a query that needs to be directly importable without errors.
I have looked at two similar questions on SO:
Can you use aggregate values within ON DUPLICATE KEY
– the problem here is that they're selecting from an existing table which I can't do.
on duplicate key update with a condition? – the problem here is that I have no information on the table I'm importing to (except the basic structure), and don't know what the maximum value is.
INSERT INTO table (column1,column2) VALUES (1,2) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE id=VALUES(id)
Obviously this requires an id column with AUTO_INCREMENT.
Moreover if you later need to select the inserted id just like if it was a new Insert, you do:
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE id=LAST_INSERT_ID(VALUES(id));
I would like to use "insert on duplicate key update" in a query to either insert a new row if it does not exist or update a row if it does. What I can not seem to figure out is how to use this if I do not have the unique id (because the row has not yet been created, and this ID will be autoincremented upon insert)
insert into foodchoices (unique,notunique) values (Idonthavethis,'test')
on duplicate key update notunique = 'stuff';
Now, in this example above, where it says "Idonthavethis", I do not have any unique value for this field, because it has not yet been inserted as a row. However, I do expect that this inserts somehow, I just dont know how. I expect it to act like this:
insert into foodchoices (notunique) values ('test')
BUT, if it is a field that does already exist, I WILL have that unique value. Is there some form of wildcard or something I can use for when I do not have the unique value?
I believe the answer to this is addressed in the MySQL docs:
If a table contains an AUTO_INCREMENT column and INSERT ... UPDATE inserts a row, the LAST_INSERT_ID() function returns the AUTO_INCREMENT value. If the statement updates a row instead, LAST_INSERT_ID() is not meaningful. However, you can work around this by using LAST_INSERT_ID(expr). Suppose that id is the AUTO_INCREMENT column. To make LAST_INSERT_ID() meaningful for updates, insert rows as follows:
INSERT INTO table (a,b,c) VALUES (1,2,3)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE id=LAST_INSERT_ID(id), c=3;
I think what you just might try to do is select the row with the value you have (if exists then update) otherwise insert. It's just one more sentence.
I just don't see how can you compare an existing value that you just don't have (the generated ID). Plus, if the ID is DB seeded how it'll be duplicated?
May be you need to alter your table structure for adding any constraint to "notunique" column. So you can:
insert into foodchoices (notunique) values ('test') on duplicate key update columntostoreyouruniqueid = unique;
if notunique has no constaint then it mean that you will have uniqueid as set. So it has to double query.
I am inserting some words into a two-column table with this command:
INSERT IGNORE INTO terms (term) VALUES ('word1'), ('word2'), ('word3');
How can I get the ID (Primary Key) of the row in which each word is inserted. I mean returning a value like "55,56,57" after executing INSERT. Does MySQL have such a response?
The term column is UNIQUE. If a term already exists, MySQL will not insert it. Is it possible to return the reference for this duplication (i.e. the ID of the row in which the term exists)? A response like "55,12,56".
You get it via SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID(); or via having your framework/MySQL library (in whatever language) call mysql_insert_id().
That won't work. There you have to query the IDs after inserting.
Why not just:
SELECT ID
FROM terms
WHERE term IN ('word1', 'word2', 'word3')
First, to get the id just inserted, you can make something like :
SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID() ;
Care, this will work only after your last INSERT query and it will return the first ID only if you have a multiple insert!
Then, with the IGNORE option, I don't think that it is possible to get the lines that were not inserted. When you make an INSERT IGNORE, you just tell MySQL to ignore the lines that would have to create a duplicate entry.
If you don't put this option, the INSERT will be stopped and you will have the line concerned by the duplication.
I want to update a table value on Mysql 5 but if the key does not exist create it.
The way I found to do it is by:
INSERT yyy ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE field;
The question is : is the format above less efficient than other ways to do it (As the insert will happen only once and update will happen very often)?
for example:
$result = UPDATE field;
if (num_rows_effected($result)==0) INSERT yyy
Furthermore: Is there a better way to do this in Mysql: for example a kind of:
UPDATE value IF NO SUCH ROW INSERT yyy;
Update: For those who suggested REPLACE, here is an extension to my question:
"Thanks! I need to increase a counter that is already in the table (if it exists). If not create a table row with value 1 for this column. How can I do update with this format (REPLACE)? "
There is a REPLACE also.
INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE will fire UPDATE triggers when it will stumble upon a duplicate key and won't violate FK's in case on UPDATE.
REPLACE will fire DELETE and INSERT triggers, and will violate FK's referencing the row being REPLACE'd.
If you don't have any triggers or FK's, then use INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE, it's most efficient.
You seem to be looking for this query:
INSERT
INTO table (key, counter)
VALUES (#key, 1)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
counter = counter + 1
You cannot do this with REPLACE unless you have selected previous value of the counter before running the query.
P. S. REPLACE appeared in MySQL before ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE and is being kept only for compatibility. There is no performance increase from using it.
Yes, you can use the 'replace' syntax:
REPLACE INTO table1 (key, col1, col2) values (1, 'val1','val2');
This is a feature specific to MySQL and is not necessarily implemented in other databases.
As for efficiency, my guess is that a straight update will be faster, since MySQL essentially catches the duplicate key error and handles it accordingly. However, unless you are doing large amounts of insert/updates, the performance impact will be fairly small.
Look at the REPLACE command, it meets your requirements.