INSERT INTO ... SELECT FROM ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE

dnagirl picture dnagirl · Mar 18, 2010 · Viewed 133.4k times · Source

I'm doing an insert query where most of many columns would need to be updated to the new values if a unique key already existed. It goes something like this:

INSERT INTO lee(exp_id, created_by, 
                location, animal, 
                starttime, endtime, entct, 
                inact, inadur, inadist, 
                smlct, smldur, smldist, 
                larct, lardur, lardist, 
                emptyct, emptydur)
SELECT id, uid, t.location, t.animal, t.starttime, t.endtime, t.entct, 
       t.inact, t.inadur, t.inadist, 
       t.smlct, t.smldur, t.smldist, 
       t.larct, t.lardur, t.lardist, 
       t.emptyct, t.emptydur 
FROM tmp t WHERE uid=x
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE ...; 
//update all fields to values from SELECT, 
//       except for exp_id, created_by, location, animal, 
//       starttime, endtime

I'm not sure what the syntax for the UPDATE clause should be. How do I refer to the current row from the SELECT clause?

Answer

Marcus Adams picture Marcus Adams · Mar 18, 2010

MySQL will assume the part before the equals references the columns named in the INSERT INTO clause, and the second part references the SELECT columns.

INSERT INTO lee(exp_id, created_by, location, animal, starttime, endtime, entct, 
                inact, inadur, inadist, 
                smlct, smldur, smldist, 
                larct, lardur, lardist, 
                emptyct, emptydur)
SELECT id, uid, t.location, t.animal, t.starttime, t.endtime, t.entct, 
       t.inact, t.inadur, t.inadist, 
       t.smlct, t.smldur, t.smldist, 
       t.larct, t.lardur, t.lardist, 
       t.emptyct, t.emptydur 
FROM tmp t WHERE uid=x
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE entct=t.entct, inact=t.inact, ...