The MySQL INSERT INTO Statement

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new records in a table.

INSERT INTO Syntax

It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two ways:

1. Specify both the column names and the values to be inserted:

2. If you are adding values for all the columns of the table, you do not need to specify the column names in the SQL query. However, make sure the order of the values is in the same order as the columns in the table. Here, the INSERT INTO syntax would be as follows:

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table in the Northwind sample database:

INSERT INTO Example

The following SQL statement inserts a new record in the "Customers" table:

Example:

The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:

Insert Data Only in Specified Columns

It is also possible to only insert data in specific columns.

The following SQL statement will insert a new record, but only insert data in the "CustomerName", "City", and "Country" columns (CustomerID will be updated automatically):

The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this: