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Adding Multiple Rows to a Table

1:50 with Andrew Chalkley

Inserting data into a table doesn't have to be restricted to one row at a time. You can insert multiple rows in a single statement.

SQL Used

Inserting multiple rows in a single statement:

INSERT INTO <table> (<column 1>, <column 2>, ...) 
             VALUES 
                    (<value 1>, <value 2>, ...),
                    (<value 1>, <value 2>, ...),
                    (<value 1>, <value 2>, ...);

Examples:

INSERT INTO users (username, first_name, last_name) 
    VALUES 
                  ("chalkers", "Andrew", "Chalkley"),
                  ("ScRiPtKiDdIe", "Kenneth", "Love");

INSERT INTO movies (title, genre, year_released) 
     VALUES 
                   ("Starman", "Science Fiction", 1984),
                   ("Moulin Rouge!", "Musical", 2001);

See all of the SQL used in Modifying Data With SQL in the Modifying Data With SQL Cheatsheet.

When writing queries or reading information from a database, you generally 0:00
issue one query at a time because you want to do something with the result set. 0:04
However, when you're inserting values, especially when you're populating 0:09
an initial data set, you may want to insert multiple rows at once. 0:13
Let's look at adding some more books to our books table. 0:18
Here's three new books we want to add, The Circle, 0:22
Contact, and Animal Farm. 0:28
You tend to see multiple statements like this in files that set up the initial 0:34
state of a database, called database seed files. 0:39
You're seeding information into the database. 0:43
Sometimes, if you're adding a couple of entries yourself, 0:47
you don't want to write the first bit of the query over and over again. 0:50
What you can do is separate each of the sets of values, 0:59
meaning the values in parentheses, with a comma. 1:03
You can use a return in your white space between key words, values, table and 1:19
column names. 1:24
You may want to do this to make your SQL statement clearer to read. 1:25
So, in short, you can insert multiple rows in a single statement. 1:30
You'd write INSERT INTO, the set of columns in the order you want to specify 1:34
your values, the values keyword, then each row's 1:39
values in parentheses, with each set of values separated by a comma. 1:44

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