INSERT¶

You can insert a new record into a table in a database by using the INSERT statement. CUBRID supports INSERT ... VALUES, INSERT ... SET and INSERT ... SELECT statements.

INSERT ... VALUES and INSERT ... SET statements are used to insert a new record based on the value that is explicitly specified while the INSERT ... SELECT statement is used to insert query result records obtained from different tables. Use the INSERT VALUES or INSERT ... SELECT statement to insert multiple rows by using the single INSERT statement.

<INSERT ... VALUES statement>
INSERT [INTO] table_name [(column_name, ...)]
    {VALUES | VALUE}({expr | DEFAULT}, ...)[,({expr | DEFAULT}, ...),...]
    [ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE column_name = expr, ... ]
INSERT [INTO] table_name DEFAULT [ VALUES ]

<INSERT ... SET statement>
INSERT [INTO] table_name
    SET column_name = {expr | DEFAULT}[, column_name = {expr | DEFAULT},...]
    [ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE column_name = expr, ... ]

<INSERT ... SELECT statement>
INSERT [INTO] table_name [(column_name, ...)]
    SELECT...
    [ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE column_name = expr, ... ]

• table_name: Specifies the name of the target table into which you want to insert a new record.
• column_name: Specifies the name of the column into which you want to insert the value. If you omit to specify the column name, it is considered that all columns defined in the table have been specified. Therefore, you must specify the values for all columns next to the VALUES keyword. If you do not specify all the columns defined in the table, a DEFAULT value is assigned to the non-specified columns; if the DEFAULT value is not defined, a NULL value is assigned.
• expr | DEFAULT: Specifies values that correspond to the columns next to the VALUES keyword. Expressions or the DEFAULT keyword can be specified as a value. At this time, the order and number of the specified column list must correspond to the column value list. The column value list for a single record is described in parentheses.
• DEFAULT: You can use the DEFAULT keyword to specify a default value as the column value. If you specify DEFAULT in the column value list next to the VALUES keyword, a default value column is stored for the given column: if you specify DEFAULT before the VALUES keyword, default values are stored for all columns in the table. NULL is stored for the column whose default value has not been defined.
• ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE: In case constraints are violated because a duplicated value for a column where PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE attribute is defined is inserted, the value that makes constraints violated is changed into a specific value by performing the action specified in the ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE statement.

CREATE TABLE a_tbl1(
    id INT UNIQUE,
    name VARCHAR,
    phone VARCHAR DEFAULT '000-0000'
);

--insert default values with DEFAULT keyword before VALUES
INSERT INTO a_tbl1 DEFAULT VALUES;

--insert multiple rows
INSERT INTO a_tbl1 VALUES (1,'aaa', DEFAULT),(2,'bbb', DEFAULT);

--insert a single row specifying column values for all
INSERT INTO a_tbl1 VALUES (3,'ccc', '333-3333');

--insert two rows specifying column values for only
INSERT INTO a_tbl1(id) VALUES (4), (5);

--insert a single row with SET clauses
INSERT INTO a_tbl1 SET id=6, name='eee';
INSERT INTO a_tbl1 SET id=7, phone='777-7777';

SELECT * FROM a_tbl1;

           id  name                  phone
=========================================================
         NULL  NULL                  '000-0000'
            1  'aaa'                 '000-0000'
            2  'bbb'                 '000-0000'
            3  'ccc'                 '333-3333'
            4  NULL                  '000-0000'
            5  NULL                  '000-0000'
            6  'eee'                 '000-0000'
            7  NULL                  '777-7777'

INSERT INTO a_tbl1 SET id=6, phone='000-0000'
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE phone='666-6666';
SELECT * FROM a_tbl1 WHERE id=6;

           id  name                  phone
=========================================================
            6  'eee'                 '666-6666'

INSERT INTO a_tbl1 SELECT * FROM a_tbl1 WHERE id=7 ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE name='ggg';
SELECT * FROM a_tbl1 WHERE id=7;

           id  name                  phone
=========================================================
            7  'ggg'                 '777-7777'

In INSERT ... SET syntax, the evaluation of an assignment expression is performed from left to right. If the column value is not specified, then the default value is assigned. If there is no default value, NULL is assigned.

CREATE TABLE tbl (a INT, b INT, c INT);
INSERT INTO tbl SET a=1, b=a+1, c=b+2;
SELECT * FROM tbl;

        a            b            c
===================================
        1            2            4

In the above example, b's value will be 2 and c's value will be 4 since a's value is 1.

CREATE TABLE tbl2 (a INT, b INT, c INT);
INSERT INTO tbl2 SET a=b+1, b=1, c=b+2;

In the above example, a's value will be NULL since b's value is not specified yet when assigning a's value.

SELECT * FROM tbl2;

        a            b            c
===================================
     NULL            1            3

CREATE TABLE tbl3 (a INT, b INT default 10, c INT);
INSERT INTO tbl3 SET a=b+1, b=1, c=b+2;

In the above example, a's value will be 11 since b's value is not specified yet and b's default is 10.

SELECT * FROM tbl3;

        a            b            c
===================================
       11            1            3

INSERT [INTO] table_name [(column_name, ...)]
    SELECT...
    [ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE column_name = expr, ... ]

--creating an empty table which schema replicated from a_tbl1
CREATE TABLE a_tbl2 LIKE a_tbl1;

--inserting multiple rows from SELECT query results
INSERT INTO a_tbl2 SELECT * FROM a_tbl1 WHERE id IS NOT NULL;

--inserting column value with SELECT subquery specified in the value list
INSERT INTO a_tbl2 VALUES(8, SELECT name FROM a_tbl1 WHERE name <'bbb', DEFAULT);

SELECT * FROM a_tbl2;

           id  name                  phone
=========================================================
            1  'aaa'                 '000-0000'
            2  'bbb'                 '000-0000'
            3  'ccc'                 '333-3333'
            4  NULL                  '000-0000'
            5  NULL                  '000-0000'
            6  'eee'                 '000-0000'
            7  NULL                  '777-7777'
            8  'aaa'                 '000-0000'

<INSERT ... VALUES statement>
<INSERT ... SET statement>
<INSERT ... SELECT statement>
    INSERT ...
    [ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE column_name = expr, ... ]

--creating a new table having the same schema as a_tbl1
CREATE TABLE a_tbl3 LIKE a_tbl1;
INSERT INTO a_tbl3 SELECT * FROM a_tbl1 WHERE id IS NOT NULL and name IS NOT NULL;
SELECT * FROM a_tbl3;

           id  name                  phone
=========================================================
            1  'aaa'                 '000-0000'
            2  'bbb'                 '000-0000'
            3  'ccc'                 '333-3333'
            6  'eee'                 '000-0000'

--insert duplicated value violating UNIQUE constraint
INSERT INTO a_tbl3 VALUES(2, 'bbb', '222-2222');

ERROR: Operation would have caused one or more unique constraint violations.

--insert duplicated value with specifying ON DUPLICATED KEY UPDATE clause
INSERT INTO a_tbl3 VALUES(2, 'ggg', '222-2222')
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE name='ggg', phone = '222-2222';

SELECT * FROM a_tbl3 WHERE id=2;

           id  name                  phone
=========================================================
            2  'ggg'                 '222-2222'

2 rows affected.