“INSERT IGNORE” vs “INSERT … ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE” While executing an INSERT statement with many rows, I want to skip duplicate entries that would otherwise cause failure. After some research, my options appear to be the use of either: ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE which implies an unnecessary update at some cost, or INSERT IGNORE which implies an invitation for other kinds of failure to slip in unannounced. Am I right in these assumptions? What's the best way to simply skip the rows that might cause duplicates