> > I know we're not in the business of copying mySQL,
> > but the REPLACE INTO table (...) values (...) could be
> > a useful semantic. This is a combination INSERT or
> > UPDATE statement. For one thing, it is atomic, and
> > easier to work with at the application level. Also
> > if the application doesn't care about previous values,
> > then execution has fewer locking issues and race
> > conditions.
>
> I don't know if it is standard SQL, but it will save hundreds of
> lines of code
> in applications everywhere. I LOVE the idea. I just finished
> writing a database
> merge/update program which could have been made much easier to
> write with this
> syntax.
The reason MySQL probably has it though is because it doesn't support proper
transactions.
While we're at it, why not support the MySQL alternate INSERT syntax
(rehetorical):
INSERT INTO table SET field1='value1', field2='value2';
...
Chris