Re: What executes faster?

[HACKERS] What executes faster?
Now that I've found the solution for my duplicate key problem,
I'm wondering what executes faster when I have to check for
duplicates.
1. try to update
if no row affected -> do the insert
else done
2. do a select
if row not found -> do the insert
else do the update
Another idea I'm thinking about:
I'm doing the check for duplicate key by myself now.
Aren't insert commands running faster, if I replace
an unique index by a not-unique index.

I have solved an almost similar problem.
I have a large table (about 8 milion rows) called radius and a table with
updates and newlines called radiusupdate.
The first thing I tried was 2 queries:
update radius
from radiusupdate
where radius.pk = radiusupdate.pk

insert into radius
select *
from radiusupdate RU
where RU.pk not in (select pk from radius)

But the second one is obviously not very fast. A "not in" never is... So I
now do things just a little bit different. I added a field to the table
radiusupdate called "newline". It is default set to true. Then I replace
the second query by these two:

update radiusupdate
set newline = false
from radius R
where radiusupdate.pk = radius.pk

insert into radius
select *
from radiusupdate RU
where newline = true

This is a lot faster in my case....

Reinoud