INSERT INTO

INSERT INTO

The INSERT INTO statement adds new rows to a table.

Two syntaxes

Specify the columns, then the values:

INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName, ContactName, Country)
VALUES ('Cardinal', 'Tom B. Erichsen', 'Norway');

Or insert values for all columns (in table order) without naming them:

INSERT INTO Customers
VALUES (1, 'Cardinal', 'Tom B. Erichsen', 'Norway');

Insert several rows at once

INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName, ContactName, Country)
VALUES
  ('Cardinal', 'Tom B. Erichsen', 'Norway'),
  ('Wolski', 'Zbyszek Piestrzeniewicz', 'Poland');

Text vs numbers

• Text and dates go in single quotes.
• Numbers are written without quotes.

INSERT INTO Orders (OrderID, CustomerID, OrderDate)
VALUES (10248, 1, '2024-01-05');

Column order must match

The values are placed into the listed columns in order, so the first value goes into the first column you named.

TL;DR

• INSERT INTO adds rows.
• Name the columns, then list values in the same order.
• Text and dates use single quotes; numbers don't.
• You can insert several rows at once.