SQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

INSERT Statement

Synopsis

The INSERT statement adds rows of data to a table or view.

Platform	Command
DB2	Supported, with variations
MySQL	Supported, with variations
Oracle	Supported, with variations
PostgreSQL	Supported
SQL Server	Supported, with variations

The INSERT statement allows rows to be written to a table through one of several methods:

• The first method is to insert one or more rows using the DEFAULT values specified for a column via the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statements.

• The second and most common method is to declare the actual values to be inserted into each column of the record.

• The third method, which populates a table with many records at a time, is to insert the result set of a SELECT statement.

SQL2003 Syntax

INSERT INTO [ONLY] {table_name | view_name} [(column1 [,...] )]
[OVERRIDE {SYSTEM | USER} VALUES]
{DEFAULT VALUES | VALUES (value1 [,...]) | SELECT_statement }

Keywords

[ONLY]

Used on typed tables only, this optional keyword ensures that the values inserted into table_name do not insert into any subtables.

{table_name | view_name} [(column1 [,...] )]

Declares the updateable target table or view into which the records will be inserted. You must have INSERT privileges on the table or, at a minimum, on the columns that will receive the inserted values. If no schema information is included, as in scott.employee, then the current schema and user context are assumed. You may optionally include a list of the columns in the target table or view that will ...