redhat man page for insert

INSERT(7)							   SQL Commands 							 INSERT(7)

NAME
       INSERT - create new rows in a table

SYNOPSIS
       INSERT INTO table [ ( column [, ...] ) ]
	   { DEFAULT VALUES | VALUES ( { expression | DEFAULT } [, ...] ) | SELECT query }

   INPUTS
       table  The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.

       column The name of a column in table.

       DEFAULT VALUES
	      All columns will be filled by null values or by values specified when the table was created using DEFAULT clauses.

       expression
	      A valid expression or value to assign to column.

       DEFAULT
	      This column will be filled in by the column DEFAULT clause, or NULL if a default is not available.

       query  A valid query. Refer to the SELECT statement for a further description of valid arguments.

   OUTPUTS
       INSERT oid 1
	      Message returned if only one row was inserted.  oid is the numeric OID of the inserted row.

       INSERT 0 #
	      Message returned if more than one rows were inserted.  # is the number of rows inserted.

DESCRIPTION
       INSERT  allows one to insert new rows into a table. One can insert a single row at a time or several rows as a result of a query.  The col-
       umns in the target list may be listed in any order.

       Each column not present in the target list will be inserted using a default value, either a declared DEFAULT value or NULL. PostgreSQL will
       reject the new column if a NULL is inserted into a column declared NOT NULL.

       If the expression for each column is not of the correct data type, automatic type coercion will be attempted.

       You must have insert privilege to a table in order to append to it, as well as select privilege on any table specified in a WHERE clause.

USAGE
       Insert a single row into table films:

       INSERT INTO films VALUES
	   ('UA502','Bananas',105,'1971-07-13','Comedy',INTERVAL '82 minute');

       In this second example the last column len is omitted and therefore it will have the default value of NULL:

       INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind)
	   VALUES ('T_601', 'Yojimbo', 106, DATE '1961-06-16', 'Drama');

       In the third example, we use the DEFAULT values for the date columns rather than specifying an entry.

       INSERT INTO films VALUES
	   ('UA502','Bananas',105,DEFAULT,'Comedy',INTERVAL '82 minute');
       INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind)
	   VALUES ('T_601', 'Yojimbo', 106, DEFAULT, 'Drama');

       Insert  a  single  row  into  table  distributors;  note that only column name is specified, so the omitted column did will be assigned its
       default value:

       INSERT INTO distributors (name) VALUES ('British Lion');

       Insert several rows into table films from table tmp:

       INSERT INTO films SELECT * FROM tmp;

       Insert into arrays (refer to the PostgreSQL User's Guide for further information about arrays):

       -- Create an empty 3x3 gameboard for noughts-and-crosses
       -- (all of these queries create the same board attribute)
       INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board[1:3][1:3])
	   VALUES (1,'{{"","",""},{},{"",""}}');
       INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board[3][3])
	   VALUES (2,'{}');
       INSERT INTO tictactoe (game, board)
	   VALUES (3,'{{,,},{,,},{,,}}');

COMPATIBILITY
   SQL92
       INSERT is fully compatible with SQL92.  Possible limitations in features of the query clause are documented for SELECT [select(7)].

SQL - Language Statements					    2002-11-22								 INSERT(7)