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Oracle9i SQL Reference
Release 2 (9.2)

Part Number A96540-02
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INSERT

Purpose

Use the INSERT statement to add rows to a table, a view's base table, a partition of a partitioned table or a subpartition of a composite-partitioned table, or an object table or an object view's base table.

Additional Topics

Prerequisites

For you to insert rows into a table, the table must be in your own schema or you must have INSERT privilege on the table.

For you to insert rows into the base table of a view, the owner of the schema containing the view must have INSERT privilege on the base table. Also, if the view is in a schema other than your own, then you must have INSERT privilege on the view.

If you have the INSERT ANY TABLE system privilege, then you can also insert rows into any table or any view's base table.

Conventional and Direct-Path INSERT

You can use the INSERT statement to insert data into a table, partition, or view in two ways: conventional INSERT and direct-path INSERT. When you issue a conventional INSERT statement, Oracle reuses free space in the table into which you are inserting and maintains referential integrity constraints. With direct-path INSERT, Oracle appends the inserted data after existing data in the table. Data is written directly into datafiles, bypassing the buffer cache. Free space in the existing data is not reused. This alternative enhances performance during insert operations and is similar to the functionality of Oracle's direct-path loader utility, SQL*Loader.

Direct-path INSERT is subject to a number of restrictions. If any of these restrictions is violated, then Oracle executes conventional INSERT serially without returning any message (unless otherwise noted):

Syntax

insert::=

Text description of statements_921.gif follows
Text description of insert


(single_table_insert::=, multi_table_insert::=)

single_table_insert::=

Text description of statements_927.gif follows
Text description of single_table_insert


(insert_into_clause::=, values_clause::=, returning_clause::=, subquery::=)

insert_into_clause::=

Text description of statements_922.gif follows
Text description of insert_into_clause


(DML_table_expression_clause::=)

values_clause::=

Text description of statements_941a.gif follows
Text description of values_clause


returning_clause::=

Text description of statements_926.gif follows
Text description of returning_clause


multi_table_insert::=

Text description of statements_923.gif follows
Text description of multi_table_insert


(insert_into_clause::=, values_clause::=, conditional_insert_clause::=, subquery::=)

conditional_insert_clause::=

Text description of statements_925.gif follows
Text description of conditional_insert_clause


(insert_into_clause::=, values_clause::=)

DML_table_expression_clause::=

Text description of statements_928.gif follows
Text description of DML_table_expression_clause


(subquery::=--part of SELECT syntax, subquery_restriction_clause::=, table_collection_expression::=)

subquery_restriction_clause::=

Text description of statements_929.gif follows
Text description of subquery_restriction_clause


table_collection_expression::=

Text description of statements_930.gif follows
Text description of table_collection_expression


Semantics

hint

Specify a comment that passes instructions to the optimizer on choosing an execution plan for the statement.

For a multitable insert, if you specify the PARALLEL hint for any target table, then the entire multitable insert statement is parallelized even if the target tables have not been created or altered with PARALLEL specified. If you do not specify the PARALLEL hint, then the insert operation will not be parallelized unless all target tables were created or altered with PARALLEL specified.

See Also:

single_table_insert

In a single-table insert, you insert values into one row of a table, view, or materialized view by specifying values explicitly or by retrieving the values through a subquery.

You can use the flashback_clause in subquery to insert past data into table.

See Also:

the flashback_clause of SELECT for more information on this clause

Restriction on Single-table Inserts

If you retrieve values through a subquery, then the select list of the subquery must have the same number of columns as the column list of the INSERT statement. If you omit the column list, then the subquery must provide values for every column in the table.

See Also:

"Inserting Values into Tables: Examples"

insert_into_clause

Use the INSERT INTO clause to specify the target object or objects into which Oracle is to insert data.

DML_table_expression_clause

Use the INTO dml_table_expression_clause to specify the objects into which data is being inserted.

Restrictions on the dml_table_expression_clause
schema

Specify the schema containing the table, view, or materialized view. If you omit schema, then Oracle assumes the object is in your own schema.

table | view | subquery

Specify the name of the table or object table, view or object view, materialized view, or the column or columns returned by a subquery, into which rows are to be inserted. If you specify a view or object view, then Oracle inserts rows into the view's base table.

If any value to be inserted is a REF to an object table, and if the object table has a primary key object identifier, then the column into which you insert the REF must be a REF column with a referential integrity or SCOPE constraint to the object table.

If table (or the base table of view) contains one or more domain index columns, then this statement executes the appropriate indextype insert routine.

Issuing an INSERT statement against a table fires any INSERT triggers defined on the table.

See Also:

Oracle9i Data Cartridge Developer's Guide for more information on these routines

PARTITION (partition_name) | SUBPARTITION (subpartition_name)

Specify the name of the partition or subpartition within table (or the base table of view) targeted for inserts.

If a row to be inserted does not map into a specified partition or subpartition, then then Oracle returns an error.

Restriction on Target Partitions and Subpartitions

This clause is not valid for object tables or object views.

dblink

Specify a complete or partial name of a database link to a remote database where the table or view is located. You can insert rows into a remote table or view only if you are using Oracle's distributed functionality.

If you omit dblink, then Oracle assumes that the table or view is on the local database.

See Also:

"Syntax for Schema Objects and Parts in SQL Statements" for information on referring to database links and "Inserting into a Remote Database: Example"

subquery_restriction_clause

Use the subquery_restriction_clause to restrict the subquery in one of the following ways:

WITH READ ONLY

Specify WITH READ ONLY to indicate that the table or view cannot be updated.

WITH CHECK OPTION

Specify WITH CHECK OPTION to indicate that Oracle prohibits any changes to the table or view that would produce rows that are not included in the subquery.

CONSTRAINT constraint

Specify the name of the CHECK OPTION constraint. If you omit this identifier, Oracle automatically assigns the constraint a name of the form SYS_Cn, where n is an integer that makes the constraint name unique within the database.

See Also:

"Using the WITH CHECK OPTION Clause: Example"

table_collection_expression

The table_collection_expression lets you inform Oracle that the value of collection_expression should be treated as a table for purposes of query and DML operations. The collection_expression can be a subquery, a column, a function, or a collection constructor. Regardless of its form, it must return a collection value (that is, a value whose type is nested table or varray). This process of extracting the elements of a collection is called collection unnesting.


Note:

In earlier releases of Oracle, when collection_expression was a subquery, table_collection_expression was expressed as "THE subquery". That usage is now deprecated.


See Also:

"Table Collections: Examples"

t_alias

Specify a correlation name (alias) for the table, view, or subquery to be referenced elsewhere in the statement.

Restriction on Table Aliases

You cannot specify t_alias during a multitable insert.

column

Specify a column of the table or view. In the inserted row, each column in this list is assigned a value from the values_clause or the subquery.

If you omit one or more of the table's columns from this list, then the column's value for the inserted row is the column's default value as specified when the table was created or last altered. If any omitted column has a NOT NULL constraint and no default value, then Oracle returns an error indicating that the constraint has been violated and rolls back the INSERT statement.

If you omit the column list altogether, then the values_clause or query must specify values for all columns in the table.

See Also:

CREATE TABLE for more information on default column values

values_clause

For a single-table insert operation, specify a row of values to be inserted into the table or view. You must specify a value in the values_clause for each column in the column list. If you omit the column list, then the values_clause must provide values for every column in the table.

For a multitable insert operation, each expression in the values_clause must refer to columns returned by the select list of the subquery. If you omit the values_clause, then the select list of the subquery determines the values to be inserted, so it must have the same number of columns as the column list of the corresponding insert_into_clause. If you do not specify a column list in the insert_into_clause, then the computed row must provide values for all columns in the target table.

For both types of insert operations, if you specify a column list in the insert_into_clause, then Oracle assigns to each column in the list a corresponding value from the values clause or the subquery. You can specify DEFAULT for any value in the values_clause. If you have specified a default value for the corresponding column of the table or view, then that value is inserted. If no default value for the corresponding column has been specified, then Oracle inserts null.


Note:

Parallel direct-path INSERT supports only the subquery syntax of the INSERT statement, not the values_clause. Please refer to Oracle9i Database Concepts for information on serial and parallel direct-path INSERT.


Restrictions on Inserted Values

returning_clause

The returning clause retrieves the rows affected by a DML (INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE) statement. You can specify this clause for tables and materialized views, and for views with a single base table.

When operating on a single row, a DML statement with a returning_clause can retrieve column expressions using the affected row, rowid, and REFs to the affected row and store them in host variables or PL/SQL variables.

When operating on multiple rows, a DML statement with the returning_clause stores values from expressions, rowids, and REFs involving the affected rows in bind arrays.

expr

Each item in the expr list must be a valid expression syntax. All forms are valid except scalar subquery expressions.

INTO

The INTO clause indicates that the values of the changed rows are to be stored in the variable(s) specified in data_item list.

data_item

Each data_item is a host variable or PL/SQL variable that stores the retrieved expr value.

For each expression in the RETURNING list, you must specify a corresponding type-compatible PL/SQL variable or host variable in the INTO list.

Restrictions on the RETURNING Clause

You cannot:

multi_table_insert

In a multitable insert, you insert computed rows derived from the rows returned from the evaluation of a subquery into one or more tables.


Note:

Table aliases are not defined by the select list of the subquery. Therefore, they are not visible in the clauses dependent on the select list. For example, this can happen when trying to refer to an object column in an expression. To use an expression with a table alias, you must put the expression into the select list with a column alias, and then refer to the column alias in the VALUES clause or WHEN condition of the multitable insert


ALL into_clause

Specify ALL followed by multiple insert_into_clauses to perform an unconditional multitable insert. Oracle executes each insert_into_clause once for each row returned by the subquery.

conditional_insert_clause

Specify the conditional_insert_clause to perform a conditional multitable insert. Oracle filters each insert_into_clause through the corresponding WHEN condition, which determines whether that insert_into_clause is executed. Each expression in the WHEN condition must refer to columns returned by the select list of the subquery. A single multitable insert statement can contain up to 127 WHEN clauses.

ALL

If you specify ALL, then Oracle evaluates each WHEN clause regardless of the results of the evaluation of any other WHEN clause. For each WHEN clause whose condition evaluates to true, Oracle executes the corresponding INTO clause list.

FIRST

If you specify FIRST, then Oracle evaluates each WHEN clause in the order in which it appears in the statement. For the first WHEN clause that evaluates to true, Oracle executes the corresponding INTO clause and skips subsequent WHEN clauses for the given row.

ELSE clause

For a given row, if no WHEN clause evaluates to true:

Restrictions on Multitable Inserts

subquery

Specify a subquery that returns rows that are inserted into the table. The subquery can refer to any table, view, or materialized view, including the target tables of the INSERT statement. If the subquery selects no rows, then Oracle inserts no rows into the table.

You can use subquery in combination with the TO_LOB function to convert the values in a LONG column to LOB values in another column in the same or another table. To migrate LONGs to LOBs in a view, you must perform the migration on the base table, and then add the LOB to the view.

Notes on Inserts Using a Subquery

Examples

Inserting Values into Tables: Examples

The following statement inserts a row into the sample table departments:

INSERT INTO departments
   VALUES (280, 'Recreation', 121, 1700);

If the departments table had been created with a default value of 121 for the manager_id column, then you could issue the same statement as follows:

INSERT INTO departments
   VALUES (280, 'Recreation', DEFAULT, 1700);

The following statement inserts a row with six columns into the employees table. One of these columns is assigned NULL and another is assigned a number in scientific notation:

INSERT INTO employees (employee_id, last_name, email, 
      hire_date, job_id, salary, commission_pct) 
   VALUES (207, 'Gregory', 'pgregory@oracle.com', 
      sysdate, 'PU_CLERK', 1.2E3, NULL);

The following statement has the same effect as the preceding example, but uses a subquery in the dml_table_expression_clause:

INSERT INTO 
   (SELECT employee_id, last_name, email, hire_date, job_id, 
      salary, commission_pct FROM employees) 
   VALUES (207, 'Gregory', 'pgregory@oracle.com', 
      sysdate, 'PU_CLERK', 1.2E3, NULL);
Inserting Values with a Subquery: Example

The following statement copies employees whose commission exceeds 25% of their salary into the bonuses table (which is created in "Merging into a Table: Example"):

INSERT INTO bonuses
   SELECT employee_id, salary*1.1 
   FROM employees
   WHERE commission_pct > 0.25 * salary; 
Inserting into a Remote Database: Example

The following statement inserts a row into the employees table owned by the user hr on the database accessible by the database link remote:

INSERT INTO employees@remote
   VALUES (8002, 'Juan', 'Fernandez', 'juanf@hr.com', NULL, 
   TO_DATE('04-OCT-1992', 'DD-MON-YYYY'), 'SH_CLERK', 3000, 
   NULL, 121, 20); 
Inserting Sequence Values: Example

The following statement inserts a new row containing the next value of the departments sequence into the departments table:

INSERT INTO departments 
   VALUES  (departments_seq.nextval, 'Entertainment', 162, 1400); 
Inserting Using Bind Variables: Example

The following example returns the values of the inserted rows into output bind variables :bnd1 and :bnd2. (The bind variables must first be declared.)

INSERT INTO employees 
      (employee_id, last_name, email, hire_date, job_id, salary)
   VALUES 
   (employees_seq.nextval, 'Doe', 'john.doe@oracle.com', 
       SYSDATE, 'SH_CLERK', 2400) 
   RETURNING salary*12, job_id INTO :bnd1, :bnd2;
Inserting into a Substitutable Tables and Columns: Examples

The following example inserts into the persons table, which is created in "Substitutable Table and Column Examples". The first statement uses the root type person_t. The second insert uses the employee_t subtype person_t, and the third insert uses the part_time_emp_t subtype of employee_t:

INSERT INTO persons VALUES (person_t('Bob', 1234));
INSERT INTO persons VALUES (employee_t('Joe', 32456, 12, 100000));
INSERT INTO persons VALUES (
   part_time_emp_t('Tim', 5678, 13, 1000, 20));

The following example inserts into the books table, which was created in "Substitutable Table and Column Examples". Notice that specification of the attribute values is identical to that for the substitutable table example:

INSERT INTO books VALUES (
   'An Autobiography', person_t('Bob', 1234));
INSERT INTO books VALUES (
   'Business Rules', employee_t('Joe', 3456, 12, 10000));
INSERT INTO books VALUES (
   'Mixing School and Work', 
   part_time_emp_t('Tim', 5678, 13, 1000, 20));

You can extract data from substitutable tables and columns using built-in functions and conditions. For examples, see the functions TREAT and SYS_TYPEID, and "IS OF type Conditions".

Inserting Using the TO_LOB Function: Example

The following example copies LONG data to a LOB column in the following long_tab table:

CREATE TABLE long_tab (pic_id NUMBER, long_pics LONG RAW);

First you must create a table with a LOB.

CREATE TABLE lob_tab (pic_id NUMBER, lob_pics BLOB);

Next, use an INSERT ... SELECT statement to copy the data in all rows for the LONG column into the newly created LOB column:

INSERT INTO lob_tab 
   SELECT pic_id, TO_LOB(long_pics) FROM long_tab;

Once you are confident that the migration has been successful, you can drop the long_pics table. Alternatively, if the table contains other columns, then you can simply drop the LONG column from the table as follows:

ALTER TABLE long_tab DROP COLUMN long_pics;
Inserting into a BFILE: Example

The following example inserts a row into the sample table pm.print_media. The example uses the BFILENAME function to identify a binary file on the server's file system:

CREATE DIRECTORY media_dir AS '/demo/schema/product_media';

INSERT INTO print_media (product_id, ad_id, ad_graphic)
   VALUES (3000, 31001, 
      bfilename('MEDIA_DIR', 'modem_comp_ad.gif'));
Multitable Inserts: Examples

The following example uses the multitable insert syntax to insert into the sample table sh.sales some data from an input table with a different structure.


Note:

A number of constraints on the sales table have been disabled for purposes of this example, because the example ignores a number of table columns for the sake of brevity.


The input table looks like this:

SELECT * FROM sales_input_table;

PRODUCT_ID CUSTOMER_ID WEEKLY_ST  SALES_SUN  SALES_MON  SALES_TUE  SALES_WED SALES_THU  SALES_FRI  SALES_SAT
---------- ----------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------- -------------------- ---------- ----------
       111         222 01-OCT-00        100        200        300        400       500        600        700
       222         333 08-OCT-00        200        300        400        500       600        700        800
       333         444 15-OCT-00        300        400        500        600       700        800        900

The multitable insert statement looks like this:

INSERT ALL
      INTO sales (prod_id, cust_id, time_id, amount)
      VALUES (product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date, sales_sun)
      INTO sales (prod_id, cust_id, time_id, amount)
      VALUES (product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date+1, sales_mon)
      INTO sales (prod_id, cust_id, time_id, amount)
      VALUES (product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date+2, sales_tue)
      INTO sales (prod_id, cust_id, time_id, amount)
      VALUES (product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date+3, sales_wed)
      INTO sales (prod_id, cust_id, time_id, amount)
      VALUES (product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date+4, sales_thu)
      INTO sales (prod_id, cust_id, time_id, amount)
      VALUES (product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date+5, sales_fri)
      INTO sales (prod_id, cust_id, time_id, amount)
      VALUES (product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date+6, sales_sat)
   SELECT product_id, customer_id, weekly_start_date, sales_sun,
      sales_mon, sales_tue, sales_wed, sales_thu, sales_fri, sales_sat
      FROM sales_input_table;

Assuming these are the only rows in the sales table, the contents now look like this:

SELECT * FROM sales;

   PROD_ID    CUST_ID TIME_ID   C   PROMO_ID QUANTITY_SOLD     AMOUNT       COST
---------- ---------- --------- - ---------- ------------- ---------- ----------
       111        222 01-OCT-00                                   100
       111        222 02-OCT-00                                   200
       111        222 03-OCT-00                                   300
       111        222 04-OCT-00                                   400
       111        222 05-OCT-00                                   500
       111        222 06-OCT-00                                   600
       111        222 07-OCT-00                                   700
       222        333 08-OCT-00                                   200
       222        333 09-OCT-00                                   300
       222        333 10-OCT-00                                   400
       222        333 11-OCT-00                                   500
       222        333 12-OCT-00                                   600
       222        333 13-OCT-00                                   700
       222        333 14-OCT-00                                   800
       333        444 15-OCT-00                                   300
       333        444 16-OCT-00                                   400
       333        444 17-OCT-00                                   500
       333        444 18-OCT-00                                   600
       333        444 19-OCT-00                                   700
       333        444 20-OCT-00                                   800
       333        444 21-OCT-00                                   900

The next examples insert into multiple tables. Suppose you want to provide to sales representatives some information on orders of various sizes. The following example creates tables for small, medium, large, and "special" (very large) orders and populates those tables with data from the sample table oe.orders:

CREATE TABLE small_orders 
   (order_id       NUMBER(12)   NOT NULL,
    customer_id    NUMBER(6)    NOT NULL,
    order_total    NUMBER(8,2),
    sales_rep_id   NUMBER(6)
   );

CREATE TABLE medium_orders AS SELECT * FROM small_orders;

CREATE TABLE large_orders AS SELECT * FROM small_orders;

CREATE TABLE special_orders 
   (order_id       NUMBER(12)    NOT NULL,
    customer_id    NUMBER(6)     NOT NULL,
    order_total    NUMBER(8,2),
    sales_rep_id   NUMBER(6),
    credit_limit   NUMBER(9,2),
    cust_email     VARCHAR2(30)
   );

The first multitable insert populates only the tables for small, medium, and large orders:

INSERT ALL
   WHEN order_total < 1000000 THEN
      INTO small_orders
   WHEN order_total > 1000000 AND order_total < 2000000 THEN
      INTO medium_orders
   WHEN order_total > 2000000 THEN
      INTO large_orders
   SELECT order_id, order_total, sales_rep_id, customer_id
      FROM orders;

You can accomplish the same thing using the ELSE clause in place of the insert into the large_orders table:

INSERT ALL
   WHEN order_total < 100000 THEN
      INTO small_orders
   WHEN order_total > 100000 AND order_total < 200000 THEN
      INTO medium_orders
   ELSE
      INTO large_orders
   SELECT order_id, order_total, sales_rep_id, customer_id
      FROM orders;

The next example inserts into the small, medium, and large tables, as in the preceding example, and also puts orders greater than 2,900,000 into the special_orders table. This table also shows how to use column aliases to simplify the statement:

INSERT ALL
   WHEN ottl < 100000 THEN
      INTO small_orders
         VALUES(oid, ottl, sid, cid)
   WHEN ottl > 100000 and ottl < 200000 THEN
      INTO medium_orders 
         VALUES(oid, ottl, sid, cid)
   WHEN ottl > 200000 THEN
      into large_orders
         VALUES(oid, ottl, sid, cid)
   WHEN ottl > 290000 THEN
      INTO special_orders
   SELECT o.order_id oid, o.customer_id cid, o.order_total ottl,
      o.sales_rep_id sid, c.credit_limit cl, c.cust_email cem
      FROM orders o, customers c
      WHERE o.customer_id = c.customer_id;

Finally, the next example uses the FIRST clause to put orders greater than 2,900,000 into the special_orders table and exclude those orders from the large_orders table:

INSERT FIRST
   WHEN ottl < 100000 THEN
      INTO small_orders
         VALUES(oid, ottl, sid, cid)
   WHEN ottl > 100000 and ottl < 200000 THEN
      INTO medium_orders
         VALUES(oid, ottl, sid, cid)
   WHEN ottl > 290000 THEN
      INTO special_orders
   WHEN ottl > 200000 THEN
      INTO large_orders
         VALUES(oid, ottl, sid, cid)
   SELECT o.order_id oid, o.customer_id cid, o.order_total ottl,
      o.sales_rep_id sid, c.credit_limit cl, c.cust_email cem
      FROM orders o, customers c
      WHERE o.customer_id = c.customer_id;