Oracle Insert

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:51 +0000

Examples and explanation

The Oracle Insert statement allows you to add data to a table.

Contents :

Inserting without specifying column names
Inserting by specifying column names
Insert a column’s default value
Inserting a null value
Inserting multiple rows by means of a subquery

The syntax is : insert into ( ) values ();

You do not have to specify the column names if your value list is in the same order as the columns of the table, but it is best to always specify the column names.

Sample table for use in the Oracle Insert syntax tutorial:

SQL> select * from dept order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
        20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
        30 SALES          CHICAGO
        40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON

No column list

When you do not specify the column list, you can use the values clause immediately after
the table clause, but Oracle will expect the values to match the column datatypes,
so you must make sure that the values are in the same order as the table’s columns.

To see what the order of a table’s columns is,
use the ‘DESCRIBE’ statement or its abbreviation ‘desc’ :

SQL> describe dept
 Name                   Null?    Type
 ---------------------- -------- ---------------

 DEPTNO                          NUMBER(2)
 DNAME                           VARCHAR2(14)
 LOC                             VARCHAR2(13)

SQL> insert into dept values
     (50,'MARKETING','MELBOURNE');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select * from dept order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
        20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
        30 SALES          CHICAGO
        40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON
        50 MARKETING      MELBOURNE

Using a column list

SQL> insert into dept (deptno,dname,loc)
     values (60,'IT','HARTFORD');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select * from dept order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
        20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
        30 SALES          CHICAGO
        40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON
        50 MARKETING      MELBOURNE
        60 IT             HARTFORD

6 rows selected.

Using a column list allows you to insert values for selected columns only:

SQL> insert into dept (deptno,dname)
     values (70,'CALLCENTER');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select * from dept order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
        20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
        30 SALES          CHICAGO
        40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON
        50 MARKETING      MELBOURNE
        60 IT             HARTORD
        70 CALLCENTER

7 rows selected.

Default values
You can choose to insert a column’s default value like this:
Let’s first change the DEPT table to have a default value of ‘NONE’ for the location column:

SQL> alter table dept modify (loc default 'NONE');

Table altered.

SQL> insert into dept (deptno,dname,loc)
     values (80,'SUPPORT',DEFAULT);

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select * from dept order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
        20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
        30 SALES          CHICAGO
        40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON
        50 MARKETING      MELBOURNE
        60 IT             HARTORD
        70 CALLCENTER
        80 SUPPORT        NONE

8 rows selected.

Inserting a null value

Use the ‘null’ identifier to insert a null value instead of a real value.

SQL> insert into dept (deptno,dname,loc)
     values (90,NULL,'BOISE');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select * from dept order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
        20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
        30 SALES          CHICAGO
        40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON
        50 MARKETING      MELBOURNE
        60 IT             HARTORD
        70 CALLCENTER
        80 SUPPORT        NONE
        90                BOISE

9 rows selected.

Inserting multiple rows by means of a subquery

Instead of adding one row at a time, here is an example of inserting a number of rows by using a subquery:

We have another table called DEPT_MERGE with the same table structure as DEPT and with rows which need to be added to DEPT.

SQL> select * from dept_merge order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        91 SHIPPING       DETROIT
        92 FINANCE        DETROIT

SQL> insert into dept
  2  (select * from dept_merge);

2 rows created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select * from dept order by deptno;

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
        20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
        30 SALES          CHICAGO
        40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON
        50 MARKETING      MELBOURNE
        60 IT             HARTORD
        70 CALLCENTER
        80 SUPPORT        NONE
        90                BOISE
        91 SHIPPING       DETROIT
        92 FINANCE        DETROIT

11 rows selected.

Lastly: do not forget to commit to make your changes permanent after you use the Oracle Insert statement.

Oracle Database Tips blog » sql insert

Oracle Insert

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