InsertStatement

An InsertStatement is a data manipulation language construct used to add one or more new rows to a table in a relational database. It is the counterpart to select, update, and delete statements and forms the core of data insertion in SQL and SQL-like languages.

Standard syntax typically begins with INSERT INTO followed by the target table, a list of columns, and one or more value lists. The basic form is: INSERT INTO table_name (col1, col2) VALUES (val1, val2). Many databases support inserting multiple rows in a single statement: INSERT INTO table_name (col1, col2) VALUES (v1a, v2a), (v1b, v2b). An alternative form uses INSERT INTO table_name ... SELECT ... to insert rows from a query result. Some databases also provide INSERT INTO table DEFAULT VALUES to insert a row with default column values. For example: INSERT INTO employees (name, department) VALUES ('Alice', 'HR').

Return values and variants: Both standard and extended forms may include a RETURNING or OUTPUT clause to return values from inserted rows, such as generated keys. For example, PostgreSQL allows INSERT ... RETURNING id. SQL Server uses OUTPUT to return inserted data.

In programming contexts, InsertStatement objects appear in libraries and ORMs as representations of an insert operation. They support parameter binding to prevent SQL injection, can be prepared and reused, and are executed within a transaction. Some systems implement upsert behavior via ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING/DO UPDATE (PostgreSQL) or INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE (MySQL), or use MERGE statements in SQL Server and Oracle to combine insert and update logic.

See also: SQL INSERT, upsert, prepared statement, returning clause.