I am getting the error

ERROR 1064: You have an error in your SQL syntax near 'ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE d_email='mynewemail@myemail.com' at line 1

when I run the query

insert into tablename (d_catid,d_focus,d_email) VALUES (2,1,'myname@myemail.com') ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE d_email='mynewemail@myemail.com'

The table is described as

mysql> desc tablename;
+---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| d_catid | int(11) | YES | | NULL | |
| d_focus | int(11) | | PRI | 0 | |
| d_email | varchar(200) | YES | | NULL | |
+---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Please help.

are you by any chance on mysql 4.1?

No,

MySQL 3.23.54

well, that's your problem, then, isn't it

that only works in 4.1

says so right in the docs

Is there an alternative in this version that i can use?

yep

do a SELECT to see if it's there

if it is, do an UPDATE, if it isn't, do an INSERT