The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new records in a table.
The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new records in a table.
It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two forms.
The first form does not specify the column names where the data will be inserted, only their values:
The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be inserted:
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.
Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:
CustomerID | CustomerName | ContactName | Address | City | PostalCode | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
87 | Wartian Herkku | Pirkko Koskitalo | Torikatu 38 | Oulu | 90110 | Finland |
88 | Wellington Importadora | Paula Parente | Rua do Mercado, 12 | Resende | 08737-363 | Brazil |
89 | White Clover Markets | Karl Jablonski | 305 - 14th Ave. S. Suite 3B | Seattle | 98128 | USA |
90 |
Wilman Kala | Matti Karttunen | Keskuskatu 45 | Helsinki | 21240 | Finland |
91 |
Wolski | Zbyszek | ul. Filtrowa 68 | Walla | 01-012 | Poland |
Assume we wish to insert a new row in the "Customers" table.
We can use the following SQL statement:
The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:
CustomerID | CustomerName | ContactName | Address | City | PostalCode | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
87 | Wartian Herkku | Pirkko Koskitalo | Torikatu 38 | Oulu | 90110 | Finland |
88 | Wellington Importadora | Paula Parente | Rua do Mercado, 12 | Resende | 08737-363 | Brazil |
89 | White Clover Markets | Karl Jablonski | 305 - 14th Ave. S. Suite 3B | Seattle | 98128 | USA |
90 |
Wilman Kala | Matti Karttunen | Keskuskatu 45 | Helsinki | 21240 | Finland |
91 |
Wolski | Zbyszek | ul. Filtrowa 68 | Walla | 01-012 | Poland |
92 | Cardinal | Tom B. Erichsen | Skagen 21 | Stavanger | 4006 | Norway |
Did you notice that we did not insert any number into the CustomerID
field? The CustomerID column is automatically updated with a unique number for each record in the table. |
It is also possible to only insert data in specific columns.
The following SQL statement will insert a new row, but only insert data in the "CustomerName", "City", and "Country" columns (and the CustomerID field will of course also be updated automatically):
The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:
CustomerID | CustomerName | ContactName | Address | City | PostalCode | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
87 | Wartian Herkku | Pirkko Koskitalo | Torikatu 38 | Oulu | 90110 | Finland |
88 | Wellington Importadora | Paula Parente | Rua do Mercado, 12 | Resende | 08737-363 | Brazil |
89 | White Clover Markets | Karl Jablonski | 305 - 14th Ave. S. Suite 3B | Seattle | 98128 | USA |
90 |
Wilman Kala | Matti Karttunen | Keskuskatu 45 | Helsinki | 21240 | Finland |
91 |
Wolski | Zbyszek | ul. Filtrowa 68 | Walla | 01-012 | Poland |
92 | Cardinal | null | null | Stavanger | null | Norway |