SQL INSERT Statement

The SQL INSERT Statement is used to add new records into SQL Server tables or to insert data into SQL tables. Before we get into the practical example, let us the syntax behind this SQL Insert.

SQL INSERT Statement Syntax

The basic syntax of the INSERT Statement in SQL Server is as shown below:

-- SQL Server INSERT Syntax
INSERT INTO [Destination Table] ([Column1], [Column2],..., [ColumnN])
VALUES ([Column1_Value], [Column2_Value],..., [ColumnN_Value])

• Destination Table: Please provide the fully qualifies Table name in which you want to insert records
• Column1…ColumnN: It allows us to choose the number of columns from the tables. It may be One or more.
• Column1_Value…ColumnN_Value: Please specify the values that you want to insert. For example, Column1_Value is inserted for Column1. If you omit the field names, you must specify the column_values (field values) in the order defined by the destination table structure

We can simply write as,

-- SQL Server INSERT Syntax
INSERT INTO [Destination Table]
VALUES ([Column1_Value], [Column2_Value],..., [ColumnN_Value])

In this article, we will show you, How to write SQL INSERT statement with an example. From the below screenshot you can observe that We have [SQL Insert] table in the [SQL Tutorial] and it holds two records. Here, we are going to perform the insert operations on this table

SQL INSERT Statement Example

In this example, We are going to insert a new record into [SQL Insert] Table in a more traditional way.

-- SQL Server Insert Example
USE [SQL Tutorial]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] (
	[FirstName], [LastName], [Occupation], [YearlyIncome], [Sales])
VALUES ('Tutorial', 'Gateway', 'Education', 10000, 200)

OUTPUT

NOTE: Here, we haven’t inserted the ID value because it is an identity column, and it will be updated automatically.

If we are inserting data for all the Columns then we can ignore the column names of the destination table (Syntax 2). It means the above statement can also be written as:

-- SQL Insert Statement Example
USE [SQL Tutorial]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] 
VALUES ('SQL', 'Programming', 'Database', 50000, 1800)

TIP: It is not good practice to ignore the column names so, always provide the column names.

Above T-SQL query will insert data into [FirstName], [LastName], [Occupation], [YearlyIncome], and [Sales] columns. Whenever you omit the field names, you must specify the column_values (field values) in the order defined by the destination table structure. It means SQL value will be inserted in [FirstName] column etc.

OUTPUT

SQL INSERT Statement – Inserting multiple records

In this example, We are going to insert multiple records into [SQL Insert] Table in a more traditional way.

-- SQL Server Insert Statement Example
USE [SQL Tutorial]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] 
VALUES ('Virat', 'Kohli', 'Cricket', 15700, 800)
INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] 
VALUES ('Rohit', 'Sharma', 'Cricket', 15000, 500)

OUTPUT

Here, We are going use the oldest way to insert multiple records into [SQL Insert] Table.

-- SQL Server Insert Statement Example
USE [SQL Tutorial]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] 
SELECT 'John', 'Levi', 'Professional', 75700, 1900
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Doe', 'Martin', 'Management', 95000, 5600

OUTPUT

Here, We are going to use the most popular way to insert multiple records into [SQL Insert] Table. This will work in SQL Server 2008 and later versions

-- SQL Insert Statement Example
USE [SQL Tutorial]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] 
VALUES ('Imran', 'Khan', 'Skilled Professional', 15900, 100)
      ,('Doe', 'Lara', 'Management', 15000, 60)
      ,('Ramesh', 'Kumar', 'Professional', 65000, 630)

OUTPUT

SQL INSERT Statement – Inserting few records

In this example, We are going to insert a few Records into [SQL Insert] table.

-- SQL Server Insert Statement Example
USE [SQL Tutorial]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] (
	 [FirstName], [Occupation], [Sales])
VALUES ('Insert', 'SQL Tutorials', 1225)

Above T-SQL query will insert data into [FirstName], [Occupation], and [Sales] columns. NULL values is inserted in the remaining columns.

TIP: When you are inserting a few records into the table, you must specify the column names.

OUTPUT

SQL INSERT INTO SELECT Statement

Before we get into the query, the data inside our Employ table is as shown below

In this example, We are going to select rows from the Employ table and insert them into a destination table. Here we are going to restrict the rows using the WHERE Clause.

-- SQL Server Insert Statement Example
USE [SQL Tutorial]
GO

INSERT INTO [dbo].[SQL Insert] 
	SELECT [FirstName], [LastName], [Occupation], [YearlyIncome], [Sales]
	FROM [SQL Tutorial].[dbo].[Employ]
	WHERE ID > 2

Above T-SQL query will insert [FirstName], [LastName], [Occupation], [YearlyIncome], and [Sales] columns from the source table where [ID] value is greater than 2 into the [SQL Insert] table inside the [SQL Tutorials] Database.

We are not going to explain the code implementation at this point, I suggest you refer INSERT INTO Select Statement article. Let us see whether the INSERT INTO Statement inserted the selected data into the destination table or not

OUTPUT