Exporting .txt file (tab-delimited) to mysql

Question

Is there any ways that I can replace my exported .txt file in mysql database table with an updated .txt file without making duplicates?

Step 1: after creating table in my database in mysql, I exported a .txt file from mysql command line with 10 columns and 200 rows to the table.

Step 2: then I updated my .txt file and re-exported to my table in mysql. I really wanted to replace the table contents with the updated one but it actually duplicated the rows. So, now I have old and new rows (total 400 rows).

Answer 1

In your current process you could move step 2 to step 3 and run a script to delete all the entries in your table before doing the import.

Another approach would be to load the data into a temporary table and then run the relevant queries to merge the data from the temporary table into your main table.

You should also ensure that the correct unique key/primary key constraints exist on the table to avoid possible duplication altogether.