MySQL: Insert record if not exists in table
MySQL provides a very cute solution :
REPLACE INTO `table` VALUES (5, 'John', 'Doe', SHA1('password'));
Very easy to use since you have declared a unique primary key (here with value 5).
I'm not actually suggesting that you do this, as the UNIQUE
index as suggested by Piskvor and others is a far better way to do it, but you can actually do what you were attempting:
CREATE TABLE `table_listnames` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`address` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`tele` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;
Insert a record:
INSERT INTO table_listnames (name, address, tele)
SELECT * FROM (SELECT 'Rupert', 'Somewhere', '022') AS tmp
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT name FROM table_listnames WHERE name = 'Rupert'
) LIMIT 1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 1 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
SELECT * FROM `table_listnames`;
+----+--------+-----------+------+
| id | name | address | tele |
+----+--------+-----------+------+
| 1 | Rupert | Somewhere | 022 |
+----+--------+-----------+------+
Try to insert the same record again:
INSERT INTO table_listnames (name, address, tele)
SELECT * FROM (SELECT 'Rupert', 'Somewhere', '022') AS tmp
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT name FROM table_listnames WHERE name = 'Rupert'
) LIMIT 1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 0 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
+----+--------+-----------+------+
| id | name | address | tele |
+----+--------+-----------+------+
| 1 | Rupert | Somewhere | 022 |
+----+--------+-----------+------+
Insert a different record:
INSERT INTO table_listnames (name, address, tele)
SELECT * FROM (SELECT 'John', 'Doe', '022') AS tmp
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT name FROM table_listnames WHERE name = 'John'
) LIMIT 1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 1 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
SELECT * FROM `table_listnames`;
+----+--------+-----------+------+
| id | name | address | tele |
+----+--------+-----------+------+
| 1 | Rupert | Somewhere | 022 |
| 2 | John | Doe | 022 |
+----+--------+-----------+------+
And so on...
Update:
To prevent #1060 - Duplicate column name
error in case two values may equal, you must name the columns of the inner SELECT:
INSERT INTO table_listnames (name, address, tele)
SELECT * FROM (SELECT 'Unknown' AS name, 'Unknown' AS address, '022' AS tele) AS tmp
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT name FROM table_listnames WHERE name = 'Rupert'
) LIMIT 1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 1 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
SELECT * FROM `table_listnames`;
+----+---------+-----------+------+
| id | name | address | tele |
+----+---------+-----------+------+
| 1 | Rupert | Somewhere | 022 |
| 2 | John | Doe | 022 |
| 3 | Unknown | Unknown | 022 |
+----+---------+-----------+------+
INSERT doesn't allow WHERE
in the syntax.
What you can do: create a UNIQUE INDEX
on the field which should be unique (name
), then use either:
- normal
INSERT
(and handle the error if the name already exists) INSERT IGNORE
(which willfail silentlycause a warning (instead of error) if name already exists)INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
(which will execute theUPDATE
at the end if name already exists, see documentation)
Worked :
INSERT INTO users (full_name, login, password)
SELECT 'Mahbub Tito','tito',SHA1('12345') FROM DUAL
WHERE NOT EXISTS
(SELECT login FROM users WHERE login='tito');