php - INSERT IGNORE using Codeigniter

Question

I am trying to insert a few rows into the MySQL table using Codeigniter and Active Records.

PHP Code

$data = array('......');  // some rows of data to insert
$this->db->insert_batch('my_table', $data);

However this may cause duplicate rows to be inserted into the table. To handle the insertion of duplicate data, I plan to use the INSERT IGNORE command to not insert the row if the row is a duplicate.

Problem: I cannot find the INSERT IGNORE equivalent in Active Records and do not want to edit the Active Record class. Are there any other alternatives?

The following looks interesting, but if I do the following, wont the query be run twice?

$insert_query = $this->db->insert_batch('my_table', $data);  // QUERY RUNS ONCE
$insert_query = str_replace('INSERT INTO','INSERT IGNORE INTO',$insert_query);
$this->db->query($insert_query); // QUERY RUNS A SECOND TIME

Answer 1

Don't use insert_batch, as it actually runs the query. You want insert_string

$insert_query = $this->db->insert_string('my_table', $data);
$insert_query = str_replace('INSERT INTO','INSERT IGNORE INTO',$insert_query);
$this->db->query($insert_query);

UPDATE: This doesn't work for batch queries, only one row at a time.