Tag: MySQL

Today at work, I had to create a SQL query that’d insert some rows to a MySQL table. The rows are not user generated, they are dynamically created through several SQL queries. The results of the queries should be entered to a separate table, unless if they’re already inserted.

Imagine there’s a table called “library_lending”, which looks like the following.

CREATE  TABLE `library_lending` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
  `user_name` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL ,
  `date` DATE NOT NULL ,
  `book_name` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL ,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ,
  UNIQUE INDEX `user_date` (`user_name` ASC, `date` ASC) );

Please note that we have created a “Unique Index” (“Unique Key”) called “user_date” that combined both “user_name” and “date” fields. MySQL won’t allow inserting two rows that has same values for “user_name” and “date” fields. In other words, the above table is designed to keep records of people who’re borrowing books from a library, and this table won’t allow anyone to borrow more than one book in a day, because only one record can be inserted with same “user_name” and “date”. Continue reading “[Today I Learned] Insert and Update rows with MySQL “ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE””