[mysql] How to insert data to MySQL having auto incremented primary key?

I've created a table with a primary key and enabled AUTO_INCREMENT, how do I get MYSQL use AUTO_INCREMENT?

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS test.authors (
    hostcheck_id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
    instance_id INT,
    host_object_id INT,
    check_type INT,
    is_raw_check INT,
    current_check_attempt INT,
    max_check_attempts INT,
    state INT,
    state_type INT,
    start_time datetime,
    start_time_usec INT,
    end_time datetime,
    end_time_usec INT,
    command_object_id INT,
    command_args VARCHAR(25),
    command_line VARCHAR(100),
    timeout int,
    early_timeout INT,
    execution_time DEC(18,5),
    latency DEC(18,3),
    return_code INT,
    output VARCHAR(50),
    long_output VARCHAR(50),
    perfdata VARCHAR(50)
);

Here is the query I used, I've tried "" and "1" for the first value but it doesn't work.

INSERT INTO  test.authors VALUES ('1','1','67','0','0','1','10','0','1',
'2012-01-03 12:50:49','108929','2012-01-03 12:50:59','198963','21','',
'/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_ping  5','30','0','4.04159','0.102','1',
'PING WARNING -DUPLICATES FOUND! Packet loss = 0%, RTA = 2.86 ms','',
'rta=2.860000m=0%;80;100;0'); 

This question is related to mysql insert

The answer is


Check out this post

According to it

No value was specified for the AUTO_INCREMENT column, so MySQL assigned sequence numbers automatically. You can also explicitly assign NULL or 0 to the column to generate sequence numbers.


I see three possibilities here that will help you insert into your table without making a complete mess but "specifying" a value for the AUTO_INCREMENT column, since you are supplying all the values you can do either one of the following options.

First approach (Supplying NULL):

INSERT INTO test.authors VALUES (
 NULL,'1','67','0','0','1','10','0','1','2012-01-03 12:50:49','108929',
 '2012-01-03 12:50:59','198963','21','',
 '/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_ping  5','30','0','4.04159',
 '0.102','1','PING WARNING -DUPLICATES FOUND! Packet loss = 0%, RTA = 2.86 ms',
 '','rta=2.860000m=0%;80;100;0'
);

Second approach (Supplying '' {Simple quotes / apostrophes} although it will give you a warning):

INSERT INTO test.authors VALUES (
 '','1','67','0','0','1','10','0','1','2012-01-03 12:50:49','108929',
 '2012-01-03 12:50:59','198963','21','',
 '/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_ping  5','30','0','4.04159',
 '0.102','1','PING WARNING -DUPLICATES FOUND! Packet loss = 0%, RTA = 2.86 ms',
 '','rta=2.860000m=0%;80;100;0'
);

Third approach (Supplying default):

INSERT INTO test.authors VALUES (
 default,'1','67','0','0','1','10','0','1','2012-01-03 12:50:49','108929',
 '2012-01-03 12:50:59','198963','21','',
 '/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_ping  5','30','0','4.04159',
 '0.102','1','PING WARNING -DUPLICATES FOUND! Packet loss = 0%, RTA = 2.86 ms',
 '','rta=2.860000m=0%;80;100;0'
);

Either one of these examples should suffice when inserting into that table as long as you include all the values in the same order as you defined them when creating the table.


I used something like this to type only values in my SQL request. There are too much columns in my case, and im lazy.

insert into my_table select max(id)+1, valueA, valueB, valueC.... from my_table; 

The default keyword works for me:

mysql> insert into user_table (user_id, ip, partial_ip, source, user_edit_date, username) values 
(default, '39.48.49.126', null, 'user signup page', now(), 'newUser');
---
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

I'm running mysql --version 5.1.66:

mysql  Ver 14.14 Distrib **5.1.66**, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 6.1

Set the auto increment field to NULL or 0 if you want it to be auto magically assigned...