The INSERT statement allows you to add data to a table.

Up until now, this tutorial has covered the SELECT statement and variations on it. We are now about to learn a new statement — the INSERT statement.

The SQL INSERT command allows you to insert a record into a table in your database. As with the SELECT syntax, the INSERT syntax is quite straight forward.

SQL statement

INSERT INTO Individual

VALUES ( 6, 'Benny', 'Hill', 'hillbenny' );

Source Table

IndividualIdFirstNameLastNameUserName1FredFlinstonefreddo2HomerSimpsonhomey3HomerBrownnotsofamous4OzzyOzzbournesabbath5HomerGainnoplacelike

Result

Now if we do a SELECT on the Individual table, we can see the new record added to the bottom of the result set.

IndividualIdFirstNameLastNameUserName1FredFlinstonefreddo2HomerSimpsonhomey3HomerBrownnotsofamous4OzzyOzzbournesabbath5HomerGainnoplacelike6BennyHillhillbenny

See — nothing to it!

Now, it's important to note that the INSERT statement is used only when you want to add a new record to the table. If you want to update an existing record, use an UPDATE statement. The UPDATE command is described in the next lesson.