INSERT

On this page

Warning:

As of October 4, 2019, CockroachDB v2.0 is no longer supported. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.

The INSERT statement inserts one or more rows into a table. In cases where inserted values conflict with uniqueness constraints, the ON CONFLICT clause can be used to update rather than insert rows.

Performance Best Practices

A single multi-row INSERT statement is faster than multiple single-row INSERT statements. To bulk-insert data into an existing table, use a multi-row INSERT instead of multiple single-row INSERT statements.
The IMPORT statement performs better than INSERT when inserting rows into a new table.
In traditional SQL databases, generating and retrieving unique IDs involves using INSERT with SELECT. In CockroachDB, use RETURNING clause with INSERT instead. See Insert and Return Values for more details.

Required Privileges

The user must have the INSERT privilege on the table. To use ON CONFLICT DO UPDATE, the user must also have the UPDATE privilege on the table.

Synopsis

Parameters

Parameter	Description
`common_table_expr`	See Common Table Expressions.
`table_name`	The table you want to write data to.
`AS table_alias_name`	An alias for the table name. When an alias is provided, it completely hides the actual table name.
`column_name`	The name of a column to populate during the insert.
`select_stmt`	A selection query. Each value must match the data type of its column. Also, if column names are listed after `INTO`, values must be in corresponding order; otherwise, they must follow the declared order of the columns in the table.
`DEFAULT VALUES`	To fill all columns with their default values, use `DEFAULT VALUES` in place of `select_stmt`. To fill a specific column with its default value, leave the value out of the `select_stmt` or use `DEFAULT` at the appropriate position. See the Insert Default Values examples below.
`RETURNING target_list`	Return values based on rows inserted, where `target_list` can be specific column names from the table, `*` for all columns, or computations using scalar expressions. See the Insert and Return Values example below. Within a transaction, use `RETURNING NOTHING` to return nothing in the response, not even the number of rows affected.

`ON CONFLICT` clause

Normally, when inserted values conflict with a UNIQUE constraint on one or more columns, CockroachDB returns an error. To update the affected rows instead, use an ON CONFLICT clause containing the column(s) with the unique constraint and the DO UPDATE SET expression set to the column(s) to be updated (any SET expression supported by the UPDATE statement is also supported here, including those with WHERE clauses). To prevent the affected rows from updating while allowing new rows to be inserted, set ON CONFLICT to DO NOTHING. See the Update Values ON CONFLICT and Do Not Update Values ON CONFLICT examples below.

If the values in the SET expression cause uniqueness conflicts, CockroachDB will return an error.

As a short-hand alternative to the ON CONFLICT clause, you can use the UPSERT statement. However, UPSERT does not let you specify the column with the unique constraint; it assumes that the column is the primary key. Using ON CONFLICT is therefore more flexible.

Examples

All of the examples below assume you've already created a table accounts:

> CREATE TABLE accounts(
    id INT DEFAULT unique_rowid(),
    balance DECIMAL
);

Insert a Single Row

> INSERT INTO accounts (balance, id) VALUES (10000.50, 1);

> SELECT * FROM accounts;

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  1 | 10000.5 |
+----+---------+

If you do not list column names, the statement will use the columns of the table in their declared order:

> SHOW COLUMNS FROM accounts;

+---------+---------+-------+----------------+
|  Field  |  Type   | Null  |    Default     |
+---------+---------+-------+----------------+
| id      | INT     | false | unique_rowid() |
| balance | DECIMAL | true  | NULL           |
+---------+---------+-------+----------------+

> INSERT INTO accounts VALUES (2, 20000.75);

> SELECT * FROM accounts;

+----+----------+
| id | balance  |
+----+----------+
|  1 | 10000.50 |
|  2 | 20000.75 |
+----+----------+

Insert Multiple Rows into an Existing Table

Tip:

Multi-row inserts are faster than multiple single-row INSERT statements. As a performance best practice, we recommend batching multiple rows in one multi-row INSERT statement instead of using multiple single-row INSERT statements. Experimentally determine the optimal batch size for your application by monitoring the performance for different batch sizes (10 rows, 100 rows, 1000 rows).

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) VALUES (3, 8100.73), (4, 9400.10);

> SELECT * FROM accounts;

+----+----------+
| id | balance  |
+----+----------+
|  1 | 10000.50 |
|  2 | 20000.75 |
|  3 |  8100.73 |
|  4 |  9400.10 |
+----+----------+

Insert Multiple Rows into a New Table

The IMPORT statement performs better than INSERT when inserting rows into a new table.

Insert from a `SELECT` Statement

> SHOW COLUMS FROM other_accounts;

+--------+---------+-------+---------+
| Field  |  Type   | Null  | Default |
+--------+---------+-------+---------+
| number | INT     | false | NULL    |
| amount | DECIMAL | true  | NULL    |
+--------+---------+-------+---------+

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) SELECT number, amount FROM other_accounts WHERE id > 4;

> SELECT * FROM accounts;

+----+----------+
| id | balance  |
+----+----------+
|  1 |  10000.5 |
|  2 | 20000.75 |
|  3 |  8100.73 |
|  4 |   9400.1 |
|  5 |    350.1 |
|  6 |      150 |
|  7 |    200.1 |
+----+----------+

Insert Default Values

> INSERT INTO accounts (id) VALUES (8);

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) VALUES (9, DEFAULT);

> SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE id in (8, 9);

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  8 | NULL    |
|  9 | NULL    |
+----+---------+

> INSERT INTO accounts DEFAULT VALUES;

> SELECT * FROM accounts;

+--------------------+----------+
|         id         | balance  |
+--------------------+----------+
|                  1 |  10000.5 |
|                  2 | 20000.75 |
|                  3 |  8100.73 |
|                  4 |   9400.1 |
|                  5 |    350.1 |
|                  6 |      150 |
|                  7 |    200.1 |
|                  8 | NULL     |
|                  9 | NULL     |
| 142933248649822209 | NULL     |
+--------------------+----------+

Insert and Return Values

In this example, the RETURNING clause returns the id values of the rows inserted, which are generated server-side by the unique_rowid() function. The language-specific versions assume that you have installed the relevant client drivers.

Tip:

This use of RETURNING mirrors the behavior of MySQL's last_insert_id() function.

Note:

When a driver provides a query() method for statements that return results and an exec() method for statements that do not (e.g., Go), it's likely necessary to use the query() method for INSERT statements with RETURNING.

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance)
  VALUES (DEFAULT, 1000), (DEFAULT, 250)
  RETURNING id;

+--------------------+
|         id         |
+--------------------+
| 190018410823680001 |
| 190018410823712769 |
+--------------------+
(2 rows)

# Import the driver.
import psycopg2

# Connect to the "bank" database.
conn = psycopg2.connect(
    database='bank',
    user='root',
    host='localhost',
    port=26257
)

# Make each statement commit immediately.
conn.set_session(autocommit=True)

# Open a cursor to perform database operations.
cur = conn.cursor()

# Insert two rows into the "accounts" table
# and return the "id" values generated server-side.
cur.execute(
    'INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) '
    'VALUES (DEFAULT, 1000), (DEFAULT, 250) '
    'RETURNING id'
)

# Print out the returned values.
rows = cur.fetchall()
print('IDs:')
for row in rows:
    print([str(cell) for cell in row])

# Close the database connection.
cur.close()
conn.close()

The printed values would look like:

IDs:
['190019066706952193']
['190019066706984961']

# Import the driver.
require 'pg'

# Connect to the "bank" database.
conn = PG.connect(
    user: 'root',
    dbname: 'bank',
    host: 'localhost',
    port: 26257
)

# Insert two rows into the "accounts" table
# and return the "id" values generated server-side.
conn.exec(
    'INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) '\
    'VALUES (DEFAULT, 1000), (DEFAULT, 250) '\
    'RETURNING id'
) do |res|

# Print out the returned values.
puts "IDs:"
    res.each do |row|
        puts row
    end
end

# Close communication with the database.
conn.close()

The printed values would look like:

IDs:
{"id"=>"190019066706952193"}
{"id"=>"190019066706984961"}

package main

import (
        "database/sql"
        "fmt"
        "log"

        _ "github.com/lib/pq"
)

func main() {
        //Connect to the "bank" database.
        db, err := sql.Open(
                "postgres",
                "postgresql://root@localhost:26257/bank?sslmode=disable"
        )
        if err != nil {
                log.Fatal("error connecting to the database: ", err)
        }

        // Insert two rows into the "accounts" table
        // and return the "id" values generated server-side.
        rows, err := db.Query(
                "INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) " +
                "VALUES (DEFAULT, 1000), (DEFAULT, 250) " +
                "RETURNING id",
        )
        if err != nil {
                log.Fatal(err)
        }

        // Print out the returned values.
        defer rows.Close()
        fmt.Println("IDs:")
        for rows.Next() {
                var id int
                if err := rows.Scan(&id); err != nil {
                        log.Fatal(err)
                }
                fmt.Printf("%d\n", id)
        }
}

The printed values would look like:

IDs:
190019066706952193
190019066706984961

var async = require('async');

// Require the driver.
var pg = require('pg');

// Connect to the "bank" database.
var config = {
  user: 'root',
  host: 'localhost',
  database: 'bank',
  port: 26257
};

pg.connect(config, function (err, client, done) {
  // Closes communication with the database and exits.
  var finish = function () {
    done();
    process.exit();
  };

  if (err) {
    console.error('could not connect to cockroachdb', err);
    finish();
  }
  async.waterfall([
    function (next) {
      // Insert two rows into the "accounts" table
      // and return the "id" values generated server-side.
      client.query(
        `INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance)
         VALUES (DEFAULT, 1000), (DEFAULT, 250)
         RETURNING id;`,
        next
      );
    }
  ],
  function (err, results) {
    if (err) {
      console.error('error inserting into and selecting from accounts', err);
      finish();
    }
    // Print out the returned values.
    console.log('IDs:');
    results.rows.forEach(function (row) {
      console.log(row);
    });

    finish();
  });
});

The printed values would look like:

IDs:
{ id: '190019066706952193' }
{ id: '190019066706984961' }

Update Values `ON CONFLICT`

When a uniqueness conflict is detected, CockroachDB stores the row in a temporary table called excluded. This example demonstrates how you use the columns in the temporary excluded table to apply updates on conflict:

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance)
    VALUES (8, 500.50)
    ON CONFLICT (id)
    DO UPDATE SET balance = excluded.balance;

> SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE id = 8;

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  8 |  500.50 |
+----+---------+

You can also update the row using an existing value:

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance)
    VALUES (8, 500.50)
    ON CONFLICT (id)
    DO UPDATE SET balance = accounts.balance + excluded.balance;

> SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE id = 8;

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  8 | 1001.00 |
+----+---------+

You can also use a WHERE clause to apply the DO UPDATE SET expression conditionally:

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance)
    VALUES (8, 700)
    ON CONFLICT (id)
    DO UPDATE SET balance = excluded.balance
    WHERE excluded.balance > accounts.balance;

> SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE id = 8;

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  8 |     800 |
+----+---------+
(1 row)

Do Not Update Values `ON CONFLICT`

In this example, we get an error from a uniqueness conflict:

> SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE id = 8;

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  8 |   500.5 |
+----+---------+

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) VALUES (8, 125.50);

pq: duplicate key value (id)=(8) violates unique constraint "primary"

In this example, we use ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING to ignore the uniqueness error and prevent the affected row from being updated:

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance)
    VALUES (8, 125.50)
    ON CONFLICT (id)
    DO NOTHING;

> SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE id = 8;

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  8 |   500.5 |
+----+---------+

In this example, ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING prevents the first row from updating while allowing the second row to be inserted:

> INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance)
    VALUES (8, 125.50), (10, 450)
    ON CONFLICT (id)
    DO NOTHING;

> SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE id in (8, 10);

+----+---------+
| id | balance |
+----+---------+
|  8 |   500.5 |
| 10 |     450 |
+----+---------+

Cockroach
University

Docs Hub

INSERT

Performance Best Practices

Required Privileges

Synopsis

Parameters

`ON CONFLICT` clause

Examples

Insert a Single Row

Insert Multiple Rows into an Existing Table

Insert Multiple Rows into a New Table

Insert from a `SELECT` Statement

Insert Default Values

Insert and Return Values

Update Values `ON CONFLICT`

Do Not Update Values `ON CONFLICT`

See Also

Cockroach University

Docs Hub

Cockroach University

Docs Hub

INSERT

Performance Best Practices

Required Privileges

Synopsis

Parameters

ON CONFLICT clause

Examples

Insert a Single Row

Insert Multiple Rows into an Existing Table

Insert Multiple Rows into a New Table

Insert from a SELECT Statement

Insert Default Values

Insert and Return Values

Update Values ON CONFLICT

Do Not Update Values ON CONFLICT

See Also

Cockroach
University

Cockroach
University

`ON CONFLICT` clause

Insert from a `SELECT` Statement

Update Values `ON CONFLICT`

Do Not Update Values `ON CONFLICT`