INSERT

Name

INSERT -- Inserts new rows into a table

INSERT INTO table [ ( column [, ...] ) ]

{ VALUES ( expression [, ...] ) SELECT query }

Inputs

table

The name of an existing table.

column

The name of a column in table.

expression

A valid expression or value to assign to column.

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 class or 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. Postgres 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 column date_prod 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');  

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 SELECT.