INSERT

Complete guide to inserting data in MariaDB. Complete INSERT syntax for single rows, bulk operations, and ON DUPLICATE KEY handling for production use.

Syntax

INSERT [LOW_PRIORITY | DELAYED | HIGH_PRIORITY] [IGNORE]
 [INTO] tbl_name [PARTITION (partition_list)] [(col,...)]
 {VALUES | VALUE} ({expr | DEFAULT},...),(...),...
 [ ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
   col=expr
     [, col=expr] ... ] [RETURNING select_expr 
      [, select_expr ...]]

Or:

INSERT [LOW_PRIORITY | DELAYED | HIGH_PRIORITY] [IGNORE]
    [INTO] tbl_name [PARTITION (partition_list)]
    SET col={expr | DEFAULT}, ...
    [ ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
      col=expr
        [, col=expr] ... ] [RETURNING select_expr 
      [, select_expr ...]]

Or:

INSERT [LOW_PRIORITY | HIGH_PRIORITY] [IGNORE]
    [INTO] tbl_name [PARTITION (partition_list)] [(col,...)]
    SELECT ...
    [ ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
      col=expr
        [, col=expr] ... ] [RETURNING select_expr 
      [, select_expr ...]]

The INSERT statement is used to insert new rows into an existing table. The INSERT ... VALUES and INSERT ... SET forms of the statement insert rows based on explicitly specified values. The INSERT ... SELECT form inserts rows selected from another table or tables. INSERT ... SELECT is discussed further in the INSERT ... SELECT article.

The table name can be specified in the form db_name.tbl_name or, if a default database is selected, in the form tbl_name (see Identifier Qualifiers). This allows to use INSERT ... SELECT to copy rows between different databases.

The PARTITION clause can be used in both the INSERT and the SELECT part. See Partition Pruning and Selection for details.

Current

The RETURNING clause can be used.

< 10.5

The columns list is optional. It specifies which values are explicitly inserted, and in which order. If this clause is not specified, all values must be explicitly specified, in the same order they are listed in the table definition.

The list of value follow the VALUES or VALUE keyword (which are interchangeable, regardless how much values you want to insert), and is wrapped by parenthesis. The values must be listed in the same order as the columns list. It is possible to specify more than one list to insert more than one rows with a single statement. If many rows are inserted, this is a speed optimization.

For one-row statements, the SET clause may be more simple, because you don't need to remember the columns order. All values are specified in the form col = expr.

Values can also be specified in the form of a SQL expression or subquery. However, the subquery cannot access the same table that is named in the INTO clause.

If you use the LOW_PRIORITY keyword, execution of the INSERT is delayed until no other clients are reading from the table. If you use the HIGH_PRIORITY keyword, the statement has the same priority as SELECTs. This affects only storage engines that use only table-level locking (MyISAM, MEMORY, MERGE). However, if one of these keywords is specified, concurrent inserts cannot be used. See HIGH_PRIORITY and LOW_PRIORITY clauses for details.

INSERT DELAYED

For more details on the DELAYED option, see INSERT DELAYED.

HIGH PRIORITY and LOW PRIORITY

See HIGH_PRIORITY and LOW_PRIORITY.

Defaults and Duplicate Values

See INSERT - Default & Duplicate Values for details..

INSERT IGNORE

See INSERT IGNORE.

INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE

See INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE.

Examples

Specifying the column names:

INSERT INTO person (first_name, last_name) VALUES ('John', 'Doe');

Inserting more than 1 row at a time:

INSERT INTO tbl_name VALUES (1, "row 1"), (2, "row 2");

Using the SET clause:

INSERT INTO person SET first_name = 'John', last_name = 'Doe';

SELECTing from another table:

INSERT INTO contractor SELECT * FROM person WHERE status = 'c';

See INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE and INSERT IGNORE for further examples.

INSERT ... RETURNING

INSERT ... RETURNING returns a result set of the inserted rows.

It returns the listed columns for all the rows that are inserted, or alternatively, the specified SELECT expression. Any SQL expressions which can be calculated can be used in the select expression for the RETURNING clause, including virtual columns and aliases, expressions which use various operators such as bitwise, logical and arithmetic operators, string functions, date-time functions, numeric functions, control flow functions, secondary functions and stored functions. Along with this, statements which have subqueries and prepared statements can also be used.

Examples

Simple INSERT statement:

INSERT INTO t2 VALUES (1,'Dog'),(2,'Lion'),(3,'Tiger'),(4,'Leopard') 
RETURNING id2,id2+id2,id2&id2,id2||id2;
+-----+---------+---------+----------+
| id2 | id2+id2 | id2&id2 | id2||id2 |
+-----+---------+---------+----------+
|   1 |       2 |       1 |        1 |
|   2 |       4 |       2 |        1 |
|   3 |       6 |       3 |        1 |
|   4 |       8 |       4 |        1 |
+-----+---------+---------+----------+

Using stored functions in RETURNING

DELIMITER |
CREATE FUNCTION f(arg INT) RETURNS INT
    BEGIN
       RETURN (SELECT arg+arg);
    END|

DELIMITER ;

PREPARE stmt FROM "INSERT INTO t1 SET id1=1, animal1='Bear' RETURNING f(id1), UPPER(animal1)";

EXECUTE stmt;
+---------+----------------+
| f(id1)  | UPPER(animal1) |
+---------+----------------+
|       2 | BEAR           |
+---------+----------------+

Subqueries in the RETURNING clause that return more than one row or column cannot be used.

Aggregate functions cannot be used in the RETURNING clause. Since aggregate functions work on a set of values, and if the purpose is to get the row count, ROW_COUNT() with SELECT can be used or it can be used in INSERT...SELECT...RETURNING if the table in the RETURNING clause is not the same as the INSERT table.

See Also

• INSERT DELAYED

• INSERT SELECT

• REPLACE Equivalent to DELETE + INSERT of conflicting row.

• HIGH_PRIORITY and LOW_PRIORITY

• Concurrent Inserts

• INSERT - Default & Duplicate Values

• INSERT IGNORE

• INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE

• How to quickly insert data into MariaDB

_{This page is licensed: GPLv2, originally from fill_help_tables.sql}