PostgreSQL - INSERT

Quiz

The PostgreSQL INSERT INTO statement allows user to insert one or new rows into a table. One can insert a single row at a time or several rows as a result of a query.

Syntax

Following is the basic syntax of INSERT INTO statement in PostgreSQL −

INSERT INTO TABLE_NAME (column1, column2, column3, ..., columnN)
VALUES (value1, value2, value3, ..., valueN);

Here,

column1, column2,...columnN are the names of the columns in the table into which you want to insert data.
The target column names can be listed in any order. The values supplied by the VALUES clause or query are associated with the explicit or implicit column list left-to-right.

You may not need to specify the column(s) name in the SQL query if you are adding values for all the columns of the table. But, make sure the order of the values is in the same order as the columns in the table.

Then SQL INSERT INTO syntax would be as follows −

INSERT INTO TABLE_NAME VALUES (value1, value2, value3, ..., valueN);

Output

Following the table summarizes the output messages and their meaning −

S.No	Output Message & Description
1	INSERT oid 1 Message returned if only one row was inserted. oid is the numeric OID of the inserted row.
2	INSERT 0 # Message returned if more than one rows were inserted. # is the number of rows inserted.

S.No

Output Message & Description

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.

Example of INSERT Statement

Let us create COMPANY table in testdb as follows −

CREATE TABLE COMPANY(
   ID INT PRIMARY KEY     NOT NULL,
   NAME           TEXT    NOT NULL,
   AGE            INT     NOT NULL,
   ADDRESS        CHAR(50),
   SALARY         REAL,
   JOIN_DATE	  DATE
);

Now, use insert query to add a row into the COMPANY table −

INSERT INTO COMPANY (ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE) VALUES (1, 'Paul', 32, 'California', 20000.00, '2001-07-13');

In this query, we omit the salary column and therefore it will have the default value.

INSERT INTO COMPANY (ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, JOIN_DATE) VALUES (2, 'Allen', 25, 'Texas', '2007-12-13');

Below the insert query uses DEFAULT clause for the JOIN_DATE column rather than specifying a value −

INSERT INTO COMPANY (ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE) VALUES (3, 'Teddy', 23, 'Norway', 20000.00, DEFAULT );

Here, we inserts multiple rows using the multirow VALUES syntax −

INSERT INTO COMPANY (ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE) VALUES (4, 'Mark', 25, 'Rich-Mond ', 65000.00, '2007-12-13' ), (5, 'David', 27, 'Texas', 85000.00, '2007-12-13');

All the above statements would create the following records in COMPANY table. The next chapter will teach you how to display all these records from a table.

ID	NAME	AGE	ADDRESS	SALARY	JOIN_DATE
1	Paul	32	California	20000.0	2001-07-13
2	Allen	25	Texas		2007-12-13
3	Teddy	23	Norway	20000.0
4	Mark	25	Rich-Mond	65000.0	2007-12-13
5	David	27	Texas	85000.0	2007-12-13

To generate the above table, use the single insert statement −

INSERT INTO your_table_name (ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY, JOIN_DATE) VALUES
(1, 'Paul', 32, 'California', 20000.0, '2001-07-13'),
(2, 'Allen', 25, 'Texas', NULL, '2007-12-13'),
(3, 'Teddy', 23, 'Norway', 20000.0, NULL),
(4, 'Mark', 25, 'Rich-Mond', 65000.0, '2007-12-13'),
(5, 'David', 27, 'Texas', 85000.0, '2007-12-13');

Therefore, this is the way to store the tabular data information in PostgreSQL.

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