Mysql rowcount always returns 1 on INSERT IGNORE statement

Question

I am using pymysql connector to do some inserts into my database. I am trying to return whether or not a record was added or updated.

My code is

import pymysql
db = pymysql.connect(host='127.0.0.1',user='USERNAME',password='PASSWORD',database='DATABASE')
cursor = db.cursor()

sql = "INSERT IGNORE INTO `Table` (key, via) SELECT temp.`id`, 'Via_Bot' FROM (SELECT %s AS id) temp LEFT JOIN `Other_Table` ON `Other_Table`.id = temp.id WHERE `Other_Table`.id IS NULL;"
key_id = 'ab12cd'
rows = cursor.execute(sql, (key_id,))

db.commit()

In this situation rows and cursor.rowcount always returns 1 even if a record was not inserted/modified. How do I correctly see if a record has been updated/inserted?

How do I correctly see if a record has been updated/inserted? stackoverflow.com/a/69924084/10138734 — Akina
– Akina, Commented Feb 14 at 4:47
always returns 1 even if a record was not inserted/modified dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.4/en/… "For UPDATE statements, the affected-rows value by default is the number of rows actually changed. If you specify the CLIENT_FOUND_ROWS flag to mysql_real_connect() when connecting to mysqld, the affected-rows value is the number of rows “found”; that is, matched by the WHERE clause." I.e. CLIENT_FOUND_ROWS is set by default for your code... — Akina
– Akina, Commented Feb 14 at 4:48
@Akina that's UPDATE, this is INSERT. And they are asking about a case where the INSERT...SELECT...WHERE has the WHERE condition returning no rows anyway. — ysth
– ysth, Commented Feb 14 at 5:24
@ysth You're correct, I was wrong. But by the same link: "For INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE statements, the affected-rows value per row is 1 if the row is inserted as a new row, 2 if an existing row is updated, and 0 if an existing row is set to its current values". And INSERT IGNORE is a variation of INSERT ODKU. Actual amount of inserted rows can be retrieved with explicit ROW_COUNT() function call. — Akina
– Akina, Commented Feb 14 at 5:29
@Akina ah, I missed the IGNORE part, thought they were just referring to a case of insert ... select where the select had no rows — ysth
– ysth, Commented Feb 14 at 16:43

Motunrayo Koyejo · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-16 06:08:02Z

1

The issue here is that INSERT IGNORE does not provide a way to differentiate between a successful insert and an ignored operation. The cursor.execute() method will return 1 because the statement itself was executed successfully, regardless of whether a row was inserted or ignored.

Instead of INSERT IGNORE, you can use INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE and check cursor.rowcount

import pymysql

db = pymysql.connect(host='127.0.0.1', user='USERNAME', password='PASSWORD', database='DATABASE')
cursor = db.cursor()

sql = """
INSERT INTO `Table` (key, via)
VALUES (%s, 'Via_Bot')
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE via = VALUES(via);
"""

key_id = 'ab12cd'
rows = cursor.execute(sql, (key_id,))

db.commit()

if rows == 1:
    print("Record inserted.")
elif rows == 2:
    print("Record updated.")
else:
    print("No changes made.")

answered Feb 16 at 6:08

Motunrayo Koyejo

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