I'm just starting to play with mySQL and have a few questions.
My first question: If I want to insert a row in a table ONLY if that row does not already exist in the table, how is this normally done? I know I can define the table requiring entries to be unique, but I assume that means I'll generate an error condition if I try to insert a duplicate. Is that the "best way"? A few more details. I have a many to one relationship. For example, let's say I take an order from a customer. If the customer is new, I need to enter them into the database. Further, I need to "link" the order to the customer. How is this normally done. BTW, I'm using perl/DBD/DBI to handle the data entry. Oh, btw, this needs to be fairly efficient, since I'm entering 20K records per hour. (no, this isn't really an customer order database, it's a telemetry logging application, but it was easier to explain as a customer order system) thanks - jim _______________________________________________ RLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.rlug.org/mailman/listinfo/rlug
