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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 may be listed in any order. If no list of column
  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, automatic
  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 privilege 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)].

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