Populating a Table With Rows v12

The INSERT statement is used to populate a table with rows:

INSERT INTO emp VALUES (7369,'SMITH','CLERK',7902,'17-DEC-80',800,NULL,20);

Note that all data types use rather obvious input formats. Constants that are not simple numeric values usually must be surrounded by single quotes ('), as in the example. The DATE type is actually quite flexible in what it accepts, but for this tutorial we will stick to the unambiguous format shown here.

The syntax used so far requires you to remember the order of the columns. An alternative syntax allows you to list the columns explicitly:

INSERT INTO emp(empno,ename,job,mgr,hiredate,sal,comm,deptno)
    VALUES (7499,'ALLEN','SALESMAN',7698,'20-FEB-81',1600,300,30);

You can list the columns in a different order if you wish or even omit some columns, e.g., if the commission is unknown:

INSERT INTO emp(empno,ename,job,mgr,hiredate,sal,deptno)
    VALUES (7369,'SMITH','CLERK',7902,'17-DEC-80',800,20);

Many developers consider explicitly listing the columns better style than relying on the order implicitly.