Add documentation on 'if not Insert then Modify' best practices - #256
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Stefan Sosic (StefanSosic) wants to merge 5 commits into
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Add documentation on 'if not Insert then Modify' best practices#256Stefan Sosic (StefanSosic) wants to merge 5 commits into
Stefan Sosic (StefanSosic) wants to merge 5 commits into
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Stefan Sosic (StefanSosic)
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I like it. Thanks!
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Pull request overview
Adds a new Best Practice documentation page to the AL guidelines site explaining why the “if not Insert then Modify” pattern is inefficient in Business Central and proposing an alternative approach.
Changes:
- Introduces a new Best Practices doc page describing the performance drawbacks of “if not Insert then Modify”.
- Adds a “Note” callout clarifying a singleton-table exception and links to the Singleton Table pattern.
- Provides alternative sample code using
IsEmpty()to avoid insert-failure handling.
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| When handling data insertion in Business Central, a common but inefficient pattern is attempting to insert a record and modifying it if the insert fails due to duplicate keys. This approach introduces unnecessary performance overhead and should be avoided. | ||
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| {{% alert title="Note" color="info" %}} | ||
| This pattern is only good when used on singleton table. Read more about [Singleton Table](https://alguidelines.dev/docs/navpatterns/patterns/singleton/singleton-table/). |
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| ## Best Practice: Use IsEmpty | ||
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| Instead of relying on insert failures, ensure the record’s uniqueness upfront using a number series or an incremental primary key. If the data comes from an external source where duplicates might exist, use IsEmpty to check for existence. |
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| if SomeRecord.IsEmpty() then | ||
| SomeRecord.Insert() | ||
| else |
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| Instead of relying on insert failures, ensure the record’s uniqueness upfront using a number series or an incremental primary key. If the data comes from an external source where duplicates might exist, use IsEmpty to check for existence. | ||
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| ```AL |
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