I have a quick question about MySQL behavior.
Imagine a table with 3(relevant) columns:
id (PK + AI),somedate,someuser,etc...
I have put a unique constraint on (date,user). So when I start with a clean test table and run the following query twice:
REPLACE INTO `testtable` (somedate,someuser) VALUES('2017-01-01','admin');
I expected a row with the 'id' column on 1. but instead everytime I run this query the id goes up because of the auto increment and I can't have that happen (this would corrupt my data relations). Why is this? Can I make it so that I can keep the original primary key when a replace into occurs?
Not with the REPLACE. That's like an INSERT preceded by a DELETE. The behavior you observe with REPLACE is the same as the behavior you would see if you executed these two statements:
DELETE FROM `testtable` WHERE somedate = '2017-01-01' and someuser = 'admin';
INSERT INTO `testtable` (somedate,someuser) VALUES ('2017-01-01','admin');
And that means the auto_increment column on the newly inserted row will have a new value.
Perhaps consider using INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE.
Reference: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/insert-on-duplicate.html
(Note that the attempt to insert a row that gets updated will use an auto_increment value.)
To me looks like you actually wanted an UPDATE statement rather like
update `testtable`
set somedate = '2017-01-01',
someuser = 'admin'
where id = <id of the record> ;
I started by googling and found the article How to write INSERT if NOT EXISTS queries in standard SQL which talks about mutex tables.
I have a table with ~14 million records. If I want to add more data in the same format, is there a way to ensure the record I want to insert does not already exist without using a pair of queries (i.e., one query to check and one to insert is the result set is empty)?
Does a unique constraint on a field guarantee the insert will fail if it's already there?
It seems that with merely a constraint, when I issue the insert via PHP, the script croaks.
Use INSERT IGNORE INTO table.
There's also INSERT … ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE syntax, and you can find explanations in 13.2.6.2 INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE Statement.
Post from bogdan.org.ua according to Google's webcache:
18th October 2007
To start: as of the latest MySQL, syntax presented in the title is not
possible. But there are several very easy ways to accomplish what is
expected using existing functionality.
There are 3 possible solutions: using INSERT IGNORE, REPLACE, or
INSERT … ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE.
Imagine we have a table:
CREATE TABLE `transcripts` (
`ensembl_transcript_id` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
`transcript_chrom_start` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`transcript_chrom_end` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`ensembl_transcript_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
Now imagine that we have an automatic pipeline importing transcripts
meta-data from Ensembl, and that due to various reasons the pipeline
might be broken at any step of execution. Thus, we need to ensure two
things:
repeated executions of the pipeline will not destroy our
> database
repeated executions will not die due to ‘duplicate
> primary key’ errors.
Method 1: using REPLACE
It’s very simple:
REPLACE INTO `transcripts`
SET `ensembl_transcript_id` = 'ENSORGT00000000001',
`transcript_chrom_start` = 12345,
`transcript_chrom_end` = 12678;
If the record exists, it will be overwritten; if it does not yet
exist, it will be created. However, using this method isn’t efficient
for our case: we do not need to overwrite existing records, it’s fine
just to skip them.
Method 2: using INSERT IGNORE Also very simple:
INSERT IGNORE INTO `transcripts`
SET `ensembl_transcript_id` = 'ENSORGT00000000001',
`transcript_chrom_start` = 12345,
`transcript_chrom_end` = 12678;
Here, if the ‘ensembl_transcript_id’ is already present in the
database, it will be silently skipped (ignored). (To be more precise,
here’s a quote from MySQL reference manual: “If you use the IGNORE
keyword, errors that occur while executing the INSERT statement are
treated as warnings instead. For example, without IGNORE, a row that
duplicates an existing UNIQUE index or PRIMARY KEY value in the table
causes a duplicate-key error and the statement is aborted.”.) If the
record doesn’t yet exist, it will be created.
This second method has several potential weaknesses, including
non-abortion of the query in case any other problem occurs (see the
manual). Thus it should be used if previously tested without the
IGNORE keyword.
Method 3: using INSERT … ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE:
Third option is to use INSERT … ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
syntax, and in the UPDATE part just do nothing do some meaningless
(empty) operation, like calculating 0+0 (Geoffray suggests doing the
id=id assignment for the MySQL optimization engine to ignore this
operation). Advantage of this method is that it only ignores duplicate
key events, and still aborts on other errors.
As a final notice: this post was inspired by Xaprb. I’d also advise to
consult his other post on writing flexible SQL queries.
Solution:
INSERT INTO `table` (`value1`, `value2`)
SELECT 'stuff for value1', 'stuff for value2' FROM DUAL
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM `table`
WHERE `value1`='stuff for value1' AND `value2`='stuff for value2' LIMIT 1)
Explanation:
The innermost query
SELECT * FROM `table`
WHERE `value1`='stuff for value1' AND `value2`='stuff for value2' LIMIT 1
used as the WHERE NOT EXISTS-condition detects if there already exists a row with the data to be inserted. After one row of this kind is found, the query may stop, hence the LIMIT 1 (micro-optimization, may be omitted).
The intermediate query
SELECT 'stuff for value1', 'stuff for value2' FROM DUAL
represents the values to be inserted. DUAL refers to a special one row, one column table present by default in all Oracle databases (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUAL_table). On a MySQL-Server version 5.7.26 I got a valid query when omitting FROM DUAL, but older versions (like 5.5.60) seem to require the FROM information. By using WHERE NOT EXISTS the intermediate query returns an empty result set if the innermost query found matching data.
The outer query
INSERT INTO `table` (`value1`, `value2`)
inserts the data, if any is returned by the intermediate query.
In MySQL, ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE or INSERT IGNORE can be viable solutions.
An example of ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE update based on mysql.com:
INSERT INTO table (a,b,c) VALUES (1,2,3)
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE c=c+1;
UPDATE table SET c=c+1 WHERE a=1;
An example of INSERT IGNORE based on mysql.com
INSERT [LOW_PRIORITY | DELAYED | HIGH_PRIORITY] [IGNORE]
[INTO] tbl_name [(col_name,...)]
{VALUES | VALUE} ({expr | DEFAULT},...),(...),...
[ ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
col_name=expr
[, col_name=expr] ... ]
Or:
INSERT [LOW_PRIORITY | DELAYED | HIGH_PRIORITY] [IGNORE]
[INTO] tbl_name
SET col_name={expr | DEFAULT}, ...
[ ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
col_name=expr
[, col_name=expr] ... ]
Or:
INSERT [LOW_PRIORITY | HIGH_PRIORITY] [IGNORE]
[INTO] tbl_name [(col_name,...)]
SELECT ...
[ ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
col_name=expr
[, col_name=expr] ... ]
Any simple constraint should do the job, if an exception is acceptable. Examples:
primary key if not surrogate
unique constraint on a column
multi-column unique constraint
Sorry if this seems deceptively simple. I know it looks bad confronted to the link you share with us. ;-(
But I nevertheless give this answer, because it seems to fill your need. (If not, it may trigger you updating your requirements, which would be "a Good Thing"(TM) also).
If an insert would break the database unique constraint, an exception is throw at the database level, relayed by the driver. It will certainly stop your script, with a failure. It must be possible in PHP to address that case...
Try the following:
IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM beta WHERE name = 'John' > 0)
UPDATE alfa SET c1=(SELECT id FROM beta WHERE name = 'John')
ELSE
BEGIN
INSERT INTO beta (name) VALUES ('John')
INSERT INTO alfa (c1) VALUES (LAST_INSERT_ID())
END
REPLACE INTO `transcripts`
SET `ensembl_transcript_id` = 'ENSORGT00000000001',
`transcript_chrom_start` = 12345,
`transcript_chrom_end` = 12678;
If the record exists, it will be overwritten; if it does not yet exist, it will be created.
Here is a PHP function that will insert a row only if all the specified columns values don't already exist in the table.
If one of the columns differ, the row will be added.
If the table is empty, the row will be added.
If a row exists where all the specified columns have the specified values, the row won't be added.
function insert_unique($table, $vars)
{
if (count($vars)) {
$table = mysql_real_escape_string($table);
$vars = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $vars);
$req = "INSERT INTO `$table` (`". join('`, `', array_keys($vars)) ."`) ";
$req .= "SELECT '". join("', '", $vars) ."' FROM DUAL ";
$req .= "WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM `$table` WHERE ";
foreach ($vars AS $col => $val)
$req .= "`$col`='$val' AND ";
$req = substr($req, 0, -5) . ") LIMIT 1";
$res = mysql_query($req) OR die();
return mysql_insert_id();
}
return False;
}
Example usage:
<?php
insert_unique('mytable', array(
'mycolumn1' => 'myvalue1',
'mycolumn2' => 'myvalue2',
'mycolumn3' => 'myvalue3'
)
);
?>
There are several answers that cover how to solve this if you have a UNIQUE index that you can check against with ON DUPLICATE KEY or INSERT IGNORE. That is not always the case, and as UNIQUE has a length constraint (1000 bytes) you might not be able to change that. For example, I had to work with metadata in WordPress (wp_postmeta).
I finally solved it with two queries:
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = ? WHERE meta_key = ? AND post_id = ?;
INSERT INTO wp_postmeta (post_id, meta_key, meta_value) SELECT DISTINCT ?, ?, ? FROM wp_postmeta WHERE NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM wp_postmeta WHERE meta_key = ? AND post_id = ?);
Query 1 is a regular UPDATE query without any effect when the data set in question is not there. Query 2 is an INSERT which depends on a NOT EXISTS, i.e. the INSERT is only executed when the data set doesn't exist.
Something worth noting is that INSERT IGNORE will still increment the primary key whether the statement was a success or not just like a normal INSERT would.
This will cause gaps in your primary keys that might make a programmer mentally unstable. Or if your application is poorly designed and depends on perfect incremental primary keys, it might become a headache.
Look into innodb_autoinc_lock_mode = 0 (server setting, and comes with a slight performance hit), or use a SELECT first to make sure your query will not fail (which also comes with a performance hit and extra code).
Update or insert without known primary key
If you already have a unique or primary key, the other answers with either INSERT INTO ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE ... or REPLACE INTO ... should work fine (note that replace into deletes if exists and then inserts - thus does not partially update existing values).
But if you have the values for some_column_id and some_type, the combination of which are known to be unique. And you want to update some_value if exists, or insert if not exists. And you want to do it in just one query (to avoid using a transaction). This might be a solution:
INSERT INTO my_table (id, some_column_id, some_type, some_value)
SELECT t.id, t.some_column_id, t.some_type, t.some_value
FROM (
SELECT id, some_column_id, some_type, some_value
FROM my_table
WHERE some_column_id = ? AND some_type = ?
UNION ALL
SELECT s.id, s.some_column_id, s.some_type, s.some_value
FROM (SELECT NULL AS id, ? AS some_column_id, ? AS some_type, ? AS some_value) AS s
) AS t
LIMIT 1
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
some_value = ?
Basically, the query executes this way (less complicated than it may look):
Select an existing row via the WHERE clause match.
Union that result with a potential new row (table s), where the column values are explicitly given (s.id is NULL, so it will generate a new auto-increment identifier).
If an existing row is found, then the potential new row from table s is discarded (due to LIMIT 1 on table t), and it will always trigger an ON DUPLICATE KEY which will UPDATE the some_value column.
If an existing row is not found, then the potential new row is inserted (as given by table s).
Note: Every table in a relational database should have at least a primary auto-increment id column. If you don't have this, add it, even when you don't need it at first sight. It is definitely needed for this "trick".
INSERT INTO table_name (columns) VALUES (values) ON CONFLICT (id) DO NOTHING;
Alright, i have revised the question to also include what i have so far, and what i want to do. So here goes it:
CREATE ORDER (
product_nat_id int(3) NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(20),
PRIMARY KEY (product_nate_id)
)
INSERT INTO ORDER(product_nat_id, name) VALUES(1, 'Product 1');
INSERT INTO ORDER(product_nat_id, name) VALUES(2, 'Product 2');
INSERT INTO ORDER(product_nat_id, name) VALUES(3, 'Product 3');
CREATE TABLE INT_PRODUCT (
product_id INTEGER NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
product_nat_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
title TINYTEXT,
dateCreate TIMESTAMP CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
CONSTRAINT INT_PRODUCT_PK PRIMARY KEY (product_id),
UNIQUE INT_PRODUCT_NK (product_nat_id));
But what i want is, whenever a record arrives with an updated value but duplicate key, i need to insert it (and not updated), but avoid duplicate constraint based on the difference in time inserted. Hope this makes sense now.
I would suggest the following:
Look up the previous record. I assume you should know what that would be
SELECT Count(*) FROM dim WHERE recordId = '$recordid'
If in step 1 the records returned are larger than 0 then invalidate the 'previous' record:
UPDATE dim SET datevalid = '$datevalue' where recordId = '$recordid' and status = 2
Continuing with step 1 where the ecords return in the check are larger than 0 now do the insert:
INSERT INTO dim (recordId,field1,field2,date,status) VALUES (1,'sad','123123','2013-03-26',1)
If step 1 was false then just do the insert:
INSERT INTO dim (recordId,field1,field2,date,status) VALUES (1,'sad','123123','2013-03-26',1)
I would add a status field just as an extra measure when you need to find records and distinguish between valid or invalid then you do not need to filter between dates. You can then use the status field. Also have a unique auto-increment key for every record even though the data might be the same for a set of valid and invalid records. recordId and unique key will not be the same in this case. You assign the recordId and the system will assign the unique key on the table. status = 1 is valid and status = 2 is invalid.
Hope this helps!
sample code of your post like as:
Insert query syntax looks like this:
INSERT INTO table (primarykeycol,col1,col2)
VALUES (1,2,3) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE col1=0, col2=col2+1
If there is already a row with primarykeycol set to 1 this query is equal to:
UPDATE table SET col1=0, col2=col2+1 WHERE primarykeycol = 1
explanation as:
Ordinarily to achieve the same result you would have to issue an
UPDATE query, then check if there were affected rows and if not
issue an INSERT query.
This way, you can do everything in one step – first try insert and
then update if insert fails.
One situation for which this type of syntax is perfect is when you
work with daily counters. For example, you might have a table with
PostID, Date and Count columns.
Each day you’d have to check if you already created an entry for
that day and if so increase the count column – and this can be
easily substituted with one INSERT … ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE query.
Unfortunately there are some caveats. One being that when you have
multiple unique indexes it will act as if you had an OR condition in
WHERE clause of UPDATE query.
This means that multiple rows should be update, but INSERT … ON
DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE will update only one row.
MySQL manual: INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE Syntax
This is what I'm doing right now (name is UNIQUE):
SELECT * FROM fruits WHERE name='apple';
Check if the query returned any
result. If yes, don't do anything. If
no, a new value has to be inserted:
INSERT INTO fruits (name) VALUES ('apple');
Instead of the above is it ok to insert the value into the table without checking if it already exists? If the name already exists in the table, an error will be thrown and if it doesn't, a new record will be inserted.
Right now I am having to insert 500 records in a for loop, which results in 1000 queries. Will it be ok to skip the "already-exists" check?
You can use the IGNORE feature:
INSERT IGNORE INTO fruits VALUES ('apple')
If there is a key violation, it just skips this value
check out
INSERT IGNORE INTO ...
and
INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE ...
Thes second method is preferred as the IGNORE statement simply causes mysql to issue warning instead of error