INSERT .. VALUES

The INSERT command is used to add a new row to a table.

INSERT INTO games(yr, city) VALUES (2012,'London')

The table is games
The column names are yr and city
Strings in the literal values must be quoted with single quotes.

Example

games
yr	city
2012	London
2016	Rio
2020	Tokyo

The table games shows the year and the city hosting the Olympic Games.

You want to add the next Olympic games, in the year 2024, which will be held in Paris.

schema:scott

 DROP TABLE games

 CREATE TABLE games(
  yr INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  city VARCHAR(20));
INSERT INTO games(yr,city) VALUES (2012,'London');
INSERT INTO games(yr,city) VALUES (2016,'Rio');
INSERT INTO games(yr,city) VALUES (2020,'Tokyo');

The INSERT statement adds a new row to the table:

INSERT INTO scott.games(yr,city) VALUES (2024,'Paris');
SELECT * FROM scott.games;

INSERT INTO scott.games(yr,city) VALUES (2024,'Paris');
SELECT * FROM games;

What can go wrong

Your INSERT statement may break some database rule such as the unique key requirement. In this example there is a primary key on year - that means that there may not be two rows with the same year. If you attempt to add a second row with 2008 for yr then you will get an error.

INSERT INTO scott.games(yr,city) 
VALUES (2008,'Paris');
SELECT * FROM scott.games;

INSERT INTO games(yr,city) 
VALUES (2008,'Paris');
SELECT * FROM games;