HTTP - Post vs put vs patch

This topic has always boggled me. I thought they were interchangeable.

Here are the differences:

1. Post is used to make a new entry, so it can only occur once per a unique situation. Example: submitting a comment, if you allow post to happen multiple times in this scenario, there will be multiple identical comments in the DB and subsequently in the page. Post call is non-idempotent.
2. Put is more like updating an existing entry in the back-end. You want to update your profile, your contact information, etc; that would be a put call. This can be harmlessly done any number of times because it will only override the same record multiple times, so it is non-destructive. Put call is idempotent.
3. Patch call is more like Put call than the Post call in the sense that it will also update same existing entry. The main difference between Put and Patch is that the Patch call will only pass in a portion of the complete data and this data is merged in the back-end with the entry. So, it will not override the whole entry. Patch is also an idempotent call.

Idempotent HTTP methods:

So, essentially those methods that do not destructively update the back-end thus corrupting the DB with duplicate entries or unnecessary deletions are called idempotent methods.

Check - Stackoverflow question