I'm experimenting with adding a database component to a project. I've arrived at a point where I could go one of two ways to deal with an issue, and I'm not sure what the best approach is.
I have a TEXT column in one table that has a UNIQUE constraint, to create a unique list of words. The interface allows users to update the list after it's initially created, so there's a potential for them to try to add a word to the list that the table already contains. It seems to me there are two ways to handle this (and there are probably more I'm totally oblivious to). I could check in advance to see if a word is already in the list by doing a SELECT for that word, and then skipping my INSERT if the SELECT is successful. Or I could just INSERT the word and ignore the error if it's a constraint violation (UNIQUE is the only constraint on that column). I hope some database gurus can advise me. Is there a better way of doing this? Is one of these ways preferable to the other? If it makes any difference, I'm using the REALSQLDatabase for this. _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
