Once your table is created, the next step is inserting data into it. This chapter covers different ways to add records to a MySQL table.

✅ Basic Syntax

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, ...)
VALUES (value1, value2, ...);

🎓 Example: Insert One Row

For the students table created earlier:

INSERT INTO students (first_name, last_name, email, birthdate)
VALUES ('John', 'Doe', 'john.doe@example.com', '2002-06-01');

💡 id will auto-increment, and is_active will default to TRUE.

🔁 Insert Multiple Rows

INSERT INTO students (first_name, last_name, email, birthdate)
VALUES 
('Alice', 'Smith', 'alice@example.com', '2003-02-15'),
('Bob', 'Brown', 'bob@example.com', '2001-12-25');

🔒 Insert with Explicit Columns

You can omit optional columns (like is_active) if they have default values.

INSERT INTO students (first_name, last_name, email)
VALUES ('Jane', 'Miller', 'jane.miller@example.com');

🚨 Handling Duplicate Entries

Use INSERT IGNORE to skip duplicate entries (for UNIQUE columns):

INSERT IGNORE INTO students (email) VALUES ('john.doe@example.com');

Or use REPLACE to overwrite the row:

REPLACE INTO students (id, first_name, last_name, email)
VALUES (1, 'Johnny', 'Doe', 'johnny.doe@example.com');

Or use ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE:

INSERT INTO students (id, email)
VALUES (1, 'johnny.doe@example.com')
ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE email = VALUES(email);

📊 View Inserted Data

SELECT * FROM students;

❗ Insert with NULL Values

If a column allows NULLs:

INSERT INTO students (first_name, last_name, email, birthdate)
VALUES ('Mark', 'Lee', NULL, NULL);

📝 Best Practices

• Always match column order with the value order
• Use parameterized queries in applications to prevent SQL injection
• Avoid inserting into AUTO_INCREMENT columns unless necessary
• Validate data before inserting (e.g., date formats, unique emails)

🎯 Summary