Best way to avoid duplicate entry into mysql database

Question

I have a table with 3 columns - id (pk), pageId (fk), name. I have a php script which dumps about 5000 records into the table, with about half being duplicates, with same pa

Answer 1

From a mysql point you can do

alter table YOURTABLE add unique index(pageId, name);

If your wording is correct and you want to do it from php you can do

$already_done = array();
foreach ($records as $record)
{
   $unique_hash = md5($record['name'].$record['pageId']);
   if (!in_array($unique_hash, $already_done))
   {
      $already_done[] = $unique_hash;
      // sql insert here
   }
}

either way those should do you just fine.