Question

My SQL Table I am trying to insert/update has this definition:

CREATE TABLE `place`.`a_table` (
`id` bigint(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`some_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`someOther_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`some_value` text,
`re_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
`up_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `some_id_key` (`some_id`),
KEY `some_id_index1` (`some_id`,`someOther_id`),
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=6 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;

As you can see, some_id and someOther_id share an index.

I am trying to perform my insert/update statement like the following:

INSERT INTO `a_table` (`re_id`,`some_id`,`someOther_id`,`up_id`,`some_value`) VALUES      
(100,181,7,101,'stuff in the memo wow') On DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE 
`up_id`=101,`some_value`='sampleValues'

I expect since I did not specify the id, that it will fall back onto the index key (some_id_index1) as the insert/update rule. However, it is only Inserting.

Obviously this is incorrect. What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

OK, firstly to help you ask better questions. The literal answer to your question “What am I doing wrong here?” is nothing.

You have a table with an auto-increment primary key and two non-unique secondary indexes. You are inserting rows to that table without specifying the value of the primary key, so MySQL will use the auto-increment rule to give it a unique key, and therefore the ON DUPLICATE KEY condition will never trigger. In fact one could argue that it is redundant.

So the question you have to ask yourself is what do you think should happen. Now Stack Overflow is not a forum, so don’t come back adding comments to this question trying to clarify your original question. Instead formulate a new question that makes it clear to those trying to answer exactly what it is that you are asking.

As I see it, there are a number of posibilities:

1. You want to modify the secondary indexes to be unique. One you do that it will trigger the ON DUPLICATE KEY rule and switch to updating
2. You actually don’t want the auto-increment column at all and some_id should actually be your primary key
3. You don’t understand how database indexes work (specifically at least one of your secondary index is likely unnecessary as the database typically can combine several indexes or use a partial index to optimize your queries anyway, so the second secondary index is more useful being an index of only the someOther_id field unless there is a specific uniqueness constraint that you are enforcing. So for example if you expect multiple rows with the same some_id but only ever one row of a specific someOther_id for any specific some_id then the second secondary index would be required, however in that case the first would not as the database can use the second as a partial index to achieve the same performance optimizations)

I suggest you sit down with a pen and piece of paper away from your computer and try to write down exactly what it is that you want to do in such a way that [pick one of: your gradmother; an eleven year old] can understand. Scrunch up the piece of paper and throw it away until you can write it down in one go without making any mistakes. Then return to the computer and try to code what you have just written.

99 times out of 100 you will actually find that this helps you solve your problem without the need to ask others questions, because 99 times out of 100 our problems are due to our own lack of understanding of the problem itself. Trying to (virtually) explain your problem to either your grandmother or an eleven year old forces you to throw away some assumptions that are blinding you and get to the core of the problem real fast before you hit the eyes glaze over look when they stop paying attention. [I am not saying you actually pair-program with your grandmother/an eleven year old]

Here is one example of such a problem statement that I have imagined for you. It is likely incorrect as I do not know what your specific problem is:

We need a table that provides cross-reference notes about two other tables. 
There are different types of cross-reference (we use the column 're_id' to 
identify the type of cross-reference) and there are different types of notes 
(we use the columns 'up_id' as well as 'someValue') to store the actual notes.
The cross-reference is indicated with two columns 'some_id' which is the id
of the row in the 'some' table and 'someOther_id' which is the id of the row
in the 'someOther' table. There can be only one cross-reference between any one
row in the 'some' table and any one row in the 'someOther' table, but there can
be multiple cross-references from one specific row in the 'some' table to different
rows in the 'someOther' table.

With the above problem statement I would switch the primary key from an auto-increment to instead be a two column primary key on (some_id,someOther_id) and remove all the secondary keys!

But I hope you realize that your actual solution actually is likely different as your problem statement will be different from my guess.