Inserting Multiple Rows

INSERT inserts a single row into a table. But what if you needed to insert multiple rows? You could simply use multiple INSERT statements, and could even submit them all at once, each terminated by a semicolon, like this:

• Input

INSERT INTO customers(cust_name,
   cust_address,
   cust_city,
   cust_state,
   cust_zip,
   cust_country)
VALUES('Pep E. LaPew',
   '100 Main Street',
   'Los Angeles',
   'CA',
   '90046',
   'USA');
INSERT INTO customers(cust_name,
   cust_address,
   cust_city,
   cust_state,
   cust_zip,
   cust_country)
VALUES('M. Martian',
   '42 Galaxy Way',
   'New York',
   'NY',
   '11213',
   'USA');

Or, as long as the column names (and order) are identical in each INSERT, you could combine the statements as follows:

• Input

INSERT INTO customers(cust_name,
   cust_address,
   cust_city,
   cust_state,
   cust_zip,
   cust_country)
VALUES(
        'Pep E. LaPew',
        '100 Main Street',
        'Los Angeles',
        'CA',
        '90046',
        'USA'
     ),
      (
        'M. Martian',
        '42 Galaxy Way',
        'New York',
        'NY',
        '11213',
        'USA'
   );

• Analysis

Here a single INSERT statement has multiple sets of values, each enclosed within parentheses, and separated by commas.