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Which is faster: multiple single INSERTs or one multiple-row INSERT?

While going through a book on mysql, I found out two ways to insert a row in a database.

Method 1 

INSERT INTO tableName (col1, col2, col3) VALUES('a', 'b', 'c');
INSERT INTO tableName (col1, col2, col3) VALUES('d', 'b', 'c');
INSERT INTO tableName (col1, col2, col3) VALUES('e', 'b', 'c');

Method 2

INSERT INTO tableName (col1, col2, col3) VALUES('a', 'b', 'c'), ('d', 'b', 'c'), ('e', 'b', 'c');

Is the second method more efficient than the first one ? Or does it simply calls the Method 1 multiple times ?

Answer 1

The second is more efficient.

The first method creates a connection each time you want to insert a row, where the second uses a single connection to insert all your rows. There is, however, a max_allowed_packet that limits the length of the client’s INSERT statement.