INSERT() SQL Commands INSERT()
NAME
INSERT - create new rows in a table
SYNOPSIS
INSERT INTO table [ ( column [, ...] ) ]
{ DEFAULT VALUES | VALUES ( { expression | DEFAULT } [, ...] ) [, ...] | query }
[ RETURNING * | output_expression [ AS output_name ] [, ...] ]
DESCRIPTION
INSERT inserts new rows into a table. One can insert one or more rows
specified by value expressions, or zero or more rows resulting from a
query.
The target column names can be listed in any order. If no list of col-
umn names is given at all, the default is all the columns of the table
in their declared order; or the first N column names, if there are only
N columns supplied by the VALUES clause or query. The values supplied
by the VALUES clause or query are associated with the explicit or
implicit column list left-to-right.
Each column not present in the explicit or implicit column list will be
filled with a default value, either its declared default value or null
if there is none.
If the expression for any column is not of the correct data type, auto-
matic type conversion will be attempted.
The optional RETURNING clause causes INSERT to compute and return
value(s) based on each row actually inserted. This is primarily useful
for obtaining values that were supplied by defaults, such as a serial
sequence number. However, any expression using the table's columns is
allowed. The syntax of the RETURNING list is identical to that of the
output list of SELECT.
You must have INSERT privilege on a table in order to insert into it,
and SELECT privilege on it to use RETURNING. If you use the query
clause to insert rows from a query, you also need to have SELECT privi-
lege on any table used in the query.
PARAMETERS
table The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.
column The name of a column in table. The column name can be qualified
with a subfield name or array subscript, if needed. (Inserting
into only some fields of a composite column leaves the other
fields null.)
DEFAULT VALUES
All columns will be filled with their default values.
expression
An expression or value to assign to the corresponding column.
DEFAULT
The corresponding column will be filled with its default value.
query A query (SELECT statement) that supplies the rows to be
inserted. Refer to the SELECT [select(l)] statement for a
description of the syntax.
output_expression
An expression to be computed and returned by the INSERT command
after each row is inserted. The expression can use any column
names of the table. Write * to return all columns of the
inserted row(s).
output_name
A name to use for a returned column.
OUTPUTS
On successful completion, an INSERT command returns a command tag of
the form
INSERT oid count
The count is the number of rows inserted. If count is exactly one, and
the target table has OIDs, then oid is the OID assigned to the inserted
row. Otherwise oid is zero.
If the INSERT command contains a RETURNING clause, the result will be
similar to that of a SELECT statement containing the columns and values
defined in the RETURNING list, computed over the row(s) inserted by the
command.
EXAMPLES
Insert a single row into table films:
INSERT INTO films VALUES
('UA502', 'Bananas', 105, '1971-07-13', 'Comedy', '82 minutes');
In this example, the len column is omitted and therefore it will have
the default value:
INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind)
VALUES ('T_601', 'Yojimbo', 106, '1961-06-16', 'Drama');
This example uses the DEFAULT clause for the date columns rather than
specifying a value:
INSERT INTO films VALUES
('UA502', 'Bananas', 105, DEFAULT, 'Comedy', '82 minutes');
INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind)
VALUES ('T_601', 'Yojimbo', 106, DEFAULT, 'Drama');
To insert a row consisting entirely of default values:
INSERT INTO films DEFAULT VALUES;
To insert multiple rows using the multirow VALUES syntax:
INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind) VALUES
('B6717', 'Tampopo', 110, '1985-02-10', 'Comedy'),
('HG120', 'The Dinner Game', 140, DEFAULT, 'Comedy');
This example inserts some rows into table films from a table tmp_films
with the same column layout as films:
INSERT INTO films SELECT * FROM tmp_films WHERE date_prod < '2004-05-07';
This example inserts into array columns:
-- Create an empty 3x3 gameboard for noughts-and-crosses
INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board[1:3][1:3])
VALUES (1, '{{" "," "," "},{" "," "," "},{" "," "," "}}');
-- The subscripts in the above example aren't really needed
INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board)
VALUES (2, '{{X," "," "},{" ",O," "},{" ",X," "}}');
Insert a single row into table distributors, returning the sequence
number generated by the DEFAULT clause:
INSERT INTO distributors (did, dname) VALUES (DEFAULT, 'XYZ Widgets')
RETURNING did;
COMPATIBILITY
INSERT conforms to the SQL standard, except that the RETURNING clause
is a PostgreSQL extension. Also, the case in which a column name list
is omitted, but not all the columns are filled from the VALUES clause
or query, is disallowed by the standard.
Possible limitations of the query clause are documented under SELECT
[select(l)].
SQL - Language Statements 2008-09-19 INSERT()
postgresql 8.3.4 - Generated Sat Oct 4 06:24:53 CDT 2008