INSERT

INSERT inserts one or more rows into a table.

Tip

  • To bulk load data into existing tables, the COPY FROM command performs better than INSERT.

  • To load Parquet or ORC files, see CREATE FOREIGN TABLE

Permissions

The role must have the INSERT permission to the destination table.

Syntax

insert_statement ::=

 INSERT INTO [schema_name.]table_name
     [ ( column_name [, ... ] ) ]
 query ;


schema_name ::= identifier

table_name ::= identifier

column_name ::= identifier

Elements

Parameter

Description

[schema_name.]table_name

Table to insert data into

( column_name [, ...] )

A comma separated list of column names that specifies the destination columns of the insert.

query

A SELECT or VALUES statement. Each value must match the data type of its destination column. The values must also match the order of the table or columns if specified with ` (column_name, …)`.

Examples

Inserting a single row

INSERT INTO cool_animals VALUES (5, 'fox', 15);

Inserting into rows with default values

The id column is an IDENTITY column, and has a default, so it can be omitted.

INSERT INTO cool_animals(name, weight) VALUES ('fox', 15);

Changing column order

INSERT INTO cool_animals(name, weight, id) VALUES ('possum', 7, 6);

Inserting multiple rows

INSERT INTO cool_animals(name, weight) VALUES ('koala', 20), ('lemur', 6), ('kiwi', 3);

Import data from other tables

INSERT can be used to insert data obtained from queries on other tables, including foreign tables.

For example,

farm=> SELECT name, weight FROM all_animals
.      WHERE region = 'Australia';

name     | weight
---------+-------
Kangaroo | 120
Koala    | 20
Wombat   | 60
Platypus | 5
Wallaby  | 35
Echidna  | 8
Dingo    | 25
INSERT INTO cool_animals(name,weight)
  SELECT name, weight FROM all_animals
  WHERE region = 'Australia';

Inserting data with positional placeholders

When preparing an INSERT statement for loading data over the network (for example, from a Python or Java application, use positional placeholders.

Example using Python:

data = [["Kangaroo", 120], ["Koala", 20], ["Platypus", 5]]
data_len = len(data)

insert_stmt = 'INSERT INTO cool_animals (name, weight) VALUES (?, ?)'
con.executemany(insert_stmt, data)

Note

The executemany method is used only for parametrized statements like INSERT. Running multiple SELECT queries or other statements this way is not supported.