The problem is this:

• I have multiple competing threads (100+) that need to access one database table
• Each thread will pass a String name - where that name exists in the table, the database should return the id for the row, where the name doesn't already exist, the name should be inserted and the id returned.
• There can only ever be one instance of name in the database - ie. name must be unique

How do I ensure that thread one doesn't insert name1 at the same time as thread two also tries to insert name1? In other words, how do I guarantee the uniqueness of name in a concurrent environment? This also needs to be as efficient as possible - this has the potential to be a serious bottleneck.

I am using MySQL and Java.

Thanks