# Ignoring errors

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ignoring-errors/134995>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 16, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ignoring-errors/134995 "2008-04-16T22:01:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cumom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bc8723/32.png) [@cumom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cumom)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ignoring-errors/134995/1 "2008-04-16T22:01:05Z")

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I am getting a mysql duplicate entry error.

Can I ignore the error (let the script continue), and how would I do  
that?

Or should I check if the entry exists every time, before I try to add  
it?

---

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**Author:** ![cumom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bc8723/32.png) [@cumom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cumom)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ignoring-errors/134995/2 "2008-04-16T22:12:57Z")

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One solution I figured out is to enclose the offending line in  
begin  
do\_something\_that\_causes\_an\_error.here  
rescue  
end

I was afraid it was going to take me a while to fix this, but it was  
easier than I expected.  
I am really starting to like Ruby.  
It works, however is seems messy.  
Is there a better way to do this?

---

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**Author:** ![cumom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bc8723/32.png) [@cumom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cumom)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ignoring-errors/134995/3 "2008-04-16T22:57:42Z")

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On Apr 16, 3:50 pm, cumom [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I am getting a mysql duplicate entry error.
> 
> Can I ignore the error (let the script continue), and how would I do  
> that?
> 
> Or should I check if the entry exists every time, before I try to add  
> it?

If you are using Rails properly with an auto\_increment id column, this  
shouldn’t happen.

And inserting a duplicate row in a DB is usually a very serious  
problem. You should not ignore it.