insert(5)

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 may 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(5)]  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 may 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(5)].

SQL - Language Statements         2008-06-08                          INSERT()