INSERT
SQL - Language Statements
INSERT
create new rows in a table
2000-08-08
INSERT INTO table [ ( column [, ...] ) ]
{ DEFAULT VALUES | VALUES ( { expression | DEFAULT } [, ...] ) | SELECT query }
Inputs
table
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.
column
The name of a column in table.
DEFAULT VALUES
All columns will be filled by null values or by values specified
when the table was created using DEFAULT> clauses.
expression
A valid expression or value to assign to column.
DEFAULT
This column will be filled in by the column DEFAULT clause, or NULL if
a default is not available.
query
A valid query. Refer to the SELECT statement for a further description
of valid arguments.
Outputs
INSERT oid 1
Message returned if only one row was inserted.
oid
is the numeric OID of the inserted row.
INSERT 0 #
Message returned if more than one rows were inserted.
#
is the number of rows inserted.
Description
INSERT allows one to insert new rows into a
table. One can insert
a single row at a time or several rows as a result of a query.
The columns in the target list may be listed in any order.
Each column not present in the target list will be inserted
using a default value, either a declared DEFAULT value
or NULL. PostgreSQL will reject the new
column if a NULL is inserted into a column declared NOT NULL.
If the expression for each column
is not of the correct data type, automatic type coercion will be
attempted.
You must have insert privilege to a table in order to append
to it, as well as select privilege on any table specified
in a WHERE clause.
Usage
Insert a single row into table films:
INSERT INTO films VALUES
('UA502','Bananas',105,'1971-07-13','Comedy',INTERVAL '82 minute');
In this second example the last column len is
omitted and therefore it will have the default value of NULL:
INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind)
VALUES ('T_601', 'Yojimbo', 106, DATE '1961-06-16', 'Drama');
In the third example, we use the DEFAULT values for the date columns
rather than specifying an entry.
INSERT INTO films VALUES
('UA502','Bananas',105,DEFAULT,'Comedy',INTERVAL '82 minute');
INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind)
VALUES ('T_601', 'Yojimbo', 106, DEFAULT, 'Drama');
Insert a single row into table distributors; note that
only column name is specified, so the omitted
column did will be assigned its default value:
INSERT INTO distributors (name) VALUES ('British Lion');
Insert several rows into table films from table tmp:
INSERT INTO films SELECT * FROM tmp;
Insert into arrays (refer to the
PostgreSQL User's Guide for further
information about arrays):
-- Create an empty 3x3 gameboard for noughts-and-crosses
-- (all of these queries create the same board attribute)
INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board[1:3][1:3])
VALUES (1,'{{"","",""},{},{"",""}}');
INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board[3][3])
VALUES (2,'{}');
INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board)
VALUES (3,'{{,,},{,,},{,,}}');
Compatibility
SQL92
INSERT is fully compatible with SQL92.
Possible limitations in features of the
query
clause are documented for
.