SQL INSERT INTO Statement

❮ Previous Next ❯

The SQL INSERT INTO Statement

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new records in a table.

It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two ways:

Syntax 1

Specify both the column names and the values to be inserted:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3, ...) VALUES (value1, value2, value3, ...);

Syntax 2

If you insert values for ALL the columns of the table, you can omit the column names.

However, the order of the values must be in the same order as the columns in the table:

INSERT INTO table_name VALUES (value1, value2, value3, ...);

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the Customers table used in the examples:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
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

INSERT INTO Example

Here we insert values for ALL the columns of the table, so we omit the column names.

The following SQL inserts a new record in the "Customers" table:

Example

INSERT INTO Customers
VALUES ('Cardinal', 'Tom B. Erichsen', 'Skagen 21', 'Stavanger', '4006', 'Norway');

The last record in the "Customers" table will now look like this:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
92	Cardinal	Tom B. Erichsen	Skagen 21	Stavanger	4006	Norway

Notice that we did not insert any number into the CustomerID field!

The CustomerID column is an auto-increment field and will be automatically generated when a new record is inserted.

Insert Data Only in Specific Columns

Here we insert values only in some specific columns of the table.

The following SQL inserts a new record - but only inserts data in the "CustomerName", "City", and "Country" columns (CustomerID will be updated automatically):

Example

INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName, City, Country)
VALUES ('Cardinal', 'Stavanger', 'Norway');

The last record in the "Customers" table will now look like this:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
92	Cardinal	null	null	Stavanger	null	Norway

Insert Multiple Rows

To insert multiple rows of data, we use the same INSERT INTO statement, but with multiple values:

The following SQL inserts three new records in the "Customers" table:

Example

INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName, ContactName, Address, City, PostalCode, Country)
VALUES
('Cardinal', 'Tom B. Erichsen', 'Skagen 21', 'Stavanger', '4006', 'Norway'),
('Greasy Burger', 'Per Olsen', 'Gateveien 15', 'Sandnes', '4306', 'Norway'),
('Tasty Tee', 'Finn Egan', 'Streetroad 19B', 'Liverpool', 'L1 0AA', 'UK');

Note: Make sure you separate each set of values with a comma ,.

The last three records in the "Customers" table will now look like this:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
92	Cardinal	Tom B. Erichsen	Skagen 21	Stavanger	4006	Norway
93	Greasy Burger	Per Olsen	Gateveien 15	Sandnes	4306	Norway
94	Tasty Tee	Finn Egan	Streetroad 19B	Liverpool	L1 0AA	UK