[sql-server] Insert multiple rows WITHOUT repeating the "INSERT INTO ..." part of the statement?

I know I've done this before years ago, but I can't remember the syntax, and I can't find it anywhere due to pulling up tons of help docs and articles about "bulk imports".

Here's what I want to do, but the syntax is not exactly right... please, someone who has done this before, help me out :)

INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable (ID, Name)
VALUES (123, 'Timmy'),
    (124, 'Jonny'),
    (125, 'Sally')

I know that this is close to the right syntax. I might need the word "BULK" in there, or something, I can't remember. Any idea?

I need this for a SQL Server 2005 database. I've tried this code, to no avail:

DECLARE @blah TABLE
(
    ID INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    Name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL
)

INSERT INTO @blah (ID, Name)
    VALUES (123, 'Timmy')
    VALUES (124, 'Jonny')
    VALUES (125, 'Sally')

SELECT * FROM @blah

I'm getting Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'VALUES'.

I've been using the following:

INSERT INTO [TableName] (ID, Name)
values (NEWID(), NEWID())
GO 10

It will add ten rows with unique GUIDs for ID and Name.

Note: do not end the last line (GO 10) with ';' because it will throw error: A fatal scripting error occurred. Incorrect syntax was encountered while parsing GO.

Oracle SQL Server Insert Multiple Rows

In a multitable insert, you insert computed rows derived from the rows returned from the evaluation of a subquery into one or more tables.

Unconditional INSERT ALL:- To add multiple rows to a table at once, you use the following form of the INSERT statement:

INSERT ALL
   INTO table_name (column_list) VALUES (value_list_1)
   INTO table_name (column_list) VALUES (value_list_2)
   INTO table_name (column_list) VALUES (value_list_3)
   ...
   INTO table_name (column_list) VALUES (value_list_n)
SELECT 1 FROM DUAL; -- SubQuery

Specify ALL followed by multiple insert_into_clauses to perform an unconditional multitable insert. Oracle Database executes each insert_into_clause once for each row returned by the subquery.

MySQL Server Insert Multiple Rows

INSERT INTO table_name (column_list)
VALUES
    (value_list_1),
    (value_list_2),
    ...
    (value_list_n);

Single Row insert Query

INSERT INTO table_name (col1,col2) VALUES(val1,val2);

Your syntax almost works in SQL Server 2008 (but not in SQL Server 2005¹):

CREATE TABLE MyTable (id int, name char(10));

INSERT INTO MyTable (id, name) VALUES (1, 'Bob'), (2, 'Peter'), (3, 'Joe');

SELECT * FROM MyTable;

id |  name
---+---------
1  |  Bob       
2  |  Peter     
3  |  Joe       

¹ When the question was answered, it was not made evident that the question was referring to SQL Server 2005. I am leaving this answer here, since I believe it is still relevant.

This is working very fast,and efficient in SQL. Suppose you have Table Sample with 4 column a,b,c,d where a,b,d are int and c column is Varchar(50).

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Sample](
[a] [int] NULL,
[b] [int] NULL,
[c] [varchar](50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL,
[D] [int] NULL
)

So you cant inset multiple records in this table using following query without repeating insert statement,

DECLARE @LIST VARCHAR(MAX)
SET @LIST='SELECT 1, 1, ''Charan Ghate'',11
     SELECT 2,2, ''Mahesh More'',12
     SELECT 3,3,''Mahesh Nikam'',13
     SELECT 4,4, ''Jay Kadam'',14'
INSERT SAMPLE (a, b, c,d) EXEC(@LIST)

Also With C# using SqlBulkCopy bulkcopy = new SqlBulkCopy(con)

You can insert 10 rows at a time

   DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        dt.Columns.Add("a");
        dt.Columns.Add("b");
        dt.Columns.Add("c");
        dt.Columns.Add("d");
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
            dr["a"] = 1;
            dr["b"] = 2;
            dr["c"] = "Charan";
            dr["d"] = 4;
            dt.Rows.Add(dr);
        }
        SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("Connection String");
        using (SqlBulkCopy bulkcopy = new SqlBulkCopy(con))
        {
            con.Open();
            bulkcopy.DestinationTableName = "Sample";
            bulkcopy.WriteToServer(dt);
            con.Close();
        }

It would be easier to use XML in SQL Server to insert multiple rows otherwise it becomes very tedious.

View full article with code explanations here http://www.cyberminds.co.uk/blog/articles/how-to-insert-multiple-rows-in-sql-server.aspx

Copy the following code into sql server to view a sample.

declare @test nvarchar(max)

set @test = '<topic><dialog id="1" answerId="41">
        <comment>comment 1</comment>
        </dialog>
    <dialog id="2" answerId="42" >
    <comment>comment 2</comment>
        </dialog>
    <dialog id="3" answerId="43" >
    <comment>comment 3</comment>
        </dialog>
    </topic>'

declare @testxml xml
set @testxml = cast(@test as xml)
declare @answerTemp Table(dialogid int, answerid int, comment varchar(1000))

insert @answerTemp
SELECT  ParamValues.ID.value('@id','int') ,
ParamValues.ID.value('@answerId','int') ,
ParamValues.ID.value('(comment)[1]','VARCHAR(1000)')
FROM @testxml.nodes('topic/dialog') as ParamValues(ID)

If your data is already in your database you can do:

INSERT INTO MyTable(ID, Name)
SELECT ID, NAME FROM OtherTable

If you need to hard code the data then SQL 2008 and later versions let you do the following...

INSERT INTO MyTable (Name, ID)
VALUES ('First',1),
('Second',2),
('Third',3),
('Fourth',4),
('Fifth',5)

Others here have suggested a couple multi-record syntaxes. Expounding upon that, I suggest you insert into a temp table first, and insert your main table from there.

The reason for this is loading the data from a query can take longer, and you may end up locking the table or pages longer than is necessary, which slows down other queries running against that table.

-- Make a temp table with the needed columns
select top 0 *
into #temp
from MyTable (nolock)

-- load data into it at your leisure (nobody else is waiting for this table or these pages)
insert #temp (ID, Name)
values (123, 'Timmy'),
(124, 'Jonny'),
(125, 'Sally')

-- Now that all the data is in SQL, copy it over to the real table. This runs much faster in most cases.
insert MyTable (ID, Name)
select ID, Name
from #temp

-- cleanup
drop table #temp

Also, your IDs should probably be identity(1,1) and you probably shouldn't be inserting them, in the vast majority of circumstances. Let SQL decide that stuff for you.

This looks OK for SQL Server 2008. For SS2005 & earlier, you need to repeat the VALUES statement.

INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable (ID, Name)  
VALUES (123, 'Timmy')  
VALUES (124, 'Jonny')   
VALUES (125, 'Sally')  

EDIT:: My bad. You have to repeat the 'INSERT INTO' for each row in SS2005.

INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable (ID, Name)  
VALUES (123, 'Timmy')  
INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable (ID, Name)  
VALUES (124, 'Jonny')   
INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable (ID, Name)  
VALUES (125, 'Sally')  

This will achieve what you're asking about:

INSERT INTO table1 (ID, Name)
    VALUES (123, 'Timmy'), 
           (124, 'Jonny'), 
           (125, 'Sally');

For future developers, you can also insert from another table:

INSERT INTO table1 (ID, Name)
    SELECT 
         ID, 
         Name 
    FROM table2

Or even from multiple tables:

INSERT INTO table1 (column2, column3)
    SELECT 
         t2.column, 
         t3.column
    FROM table2 t2
         INNER JOIN table3 t3
         ON t2.ID = t3.ID

You can use a union:

INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable (ID, Name) 
SELECT ID, Name FROM (
    SELECT 123, 'Timmy'
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 124, 'Jonny'
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 125, 'Sally'
) AS X (ID, Name)

Corresponding to INSERT (Transact-SQL) (SQL Server 2005) you can't omit INSERT INTO dbo.Blah and have to specify it every time or use another syntax/approach,

USE YourDB
GO
INSERT INTO MyTable (FirstCol, SecondCol)
SELECT 'First' ,1
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Second' ,2
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Third' ,3
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Fourth' ,4
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Fifth' ,5
GO

OR YOU CAN USE ANOTHER WAY

INSERT INTO MyTable (FirstCol, SecondCol)
VALUES 
('First',1),
('Second',2),
('Third',3),
('Fourth',4),
('Fifth',5)

Using INSERT INTO ... VALUES syntax like in Daniel Vassallo's answer there is one annoying limitation:

From MSDN

The maximum number of rows that can be constructed by inserting rows directly in the VALUES list is 1000

The easiest way to omit this limitation is to use derived table like:

INSERT INTO dbo.Mytable(ID, Name)
SELECT ID, Name 
FROM (
   VALUES (1, 'a'),
          (2, 'b'),
          --...
          -- more than 1000 rows
)sub (ID, Name);

LiveDemo

You could do this (ugly but it works):

INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable (ID, Name) 
select * from
(
 select 123, 'Timmy'
  union all
 select 124, 'Jonny' 
  union all
 select 125, 'Sally'
 ...
) x