Is it possible to insert multiple rows at a time i

Question

In MySQL you can insert multiple rows like this:

INSERT INTO 'tablename' ('column1', 'column2') VALUES
    ('data1', 'data2'),
    ('data1', 'data2'),
    ('data1', 'data2'),
    ('data1', 'data2');

However, I am getting an error when I try to do something like this. Is it possible to insert multiple rows at a time in an SQLite database? What is the syntax to do that?

Answer 1

On sqlite 3.7.2:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2) 
                SELECT 'value1', 'value1' 
          UNION SELECT 'value2', 'value2' 
          UNION SELECT 'value3', 'value3' 

and so on

Answer 2

fearless_fool has a great answer for older versions. I just wanted to add that you need to make sure you have all the columns listed. So if you have 3 columns, you need to make sure select acts on 3 columns.

Example: I have 3 columns but I only want to insert 2 columns worth of data. Assume I don't care about the first column because it's a standard integer id. I could do the following...

INSERT INTO 'tablename'
      SELECT NULL AS 'column1', 'data1' AS 'column2', 'data2' AS 'column3'
UNION SELECT NULL, 'data3', 'data4'
UNION SELECT NULL, 'data5', 'data6'
UNION SELECT NULL, 'data7', 'data8'

Note: Remember the "select ... union" statement will lose the ordering. (From AG1)

Answer 3

I am able to make the query dynamic. This is my table:

CREATE TABLE "tblPlanner" ("probid" text,"userid" TEXT,"selectedtime" DATETIME,"plannerid" TEXT,"isLocal" BOOL,"applicationid" TEXT, "comment" TEXT, "subject" TEXT)

and I'm getting all data through a JSON, so after getting everything inside an NSArray I followed this:

    NSMutableString *query = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
    for (int i = 0; i < arr.count; i++)
    {
        NSString *sqlQuery = nil;
        sqlQuery = [NSString stringWithFormat:@" ('%@', '%@', '%@', '%@', '%@', '%@', '%@', '%@'),",
                    [[arr objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"plannerid"],
                    [[arr objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"probid"],
                    [[arr objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"userid"],
                    [[arr objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"selectedtime"],
                    [[arr objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"isLocal"],
                    [[arr objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"subject"],
                    [[arr objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"comment"],
                    [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"applicationid"]
                    ];
        [query appendString:sqlQuery];
    }
    // REMOVING LAST COMMA NOW
    [query deleteCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange([query length]-1, 1)];

    query = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"insert into tblPlanner (plannerid, probid, userid, selectedtime, isLocal, applicationid, subject, comment) values%@",query];

And finally the output query is this:

insert into tblPlanner (plannerid, probid, userid, selectedtime, isLocal, applicationid, subject, comment) values 
<append 1>
('pl1176428260', '', 'US32552', '2013-06-08 12:00:44 +0000', '0', 'subj', 'Hiss', 'ap19788'),
<append 2>
('pl2050411638', '', 'US32552', '2013-05-20 10:45:55 +0000', '0', 'TERI', 'Yahoooooooooo', 'ap19788'), 
<append 3>
('pl1828600651', '', 'US32552', '2013-05-21 11:33:33 +0000', '0', 'test', 'Yest', 'ap19788'),
<append 4>
('pl549085534', '', 'US32552', '2013-05-19 11:45:04 +0000', '0', 'subj', 'Comment', 'ap19788'), 
<append 5>
('pl665538927', '', 'US32552', '2013-05-29 11:45:41 +0000', '0', 'subj', '1234567890', 'ap19788'), 
<append 6>
('pl1969438050', '', 'US32552', '2013-06-01 12:00:18 +0000', '0', 'subj', 'Cmt', 'ap19788'),
<append 7>
('pl672204050', '', 'US55240280', '2013-05-23 12:15:58 +0000', '0', 'aassdd', 'Cmt', 'ap19788'), 
<append 8>
('pl1019026150', '', 'US32552', '2013-06-08 12:15:54 +0000', '0', 'exists', 'Cmt', 'ap19788'), 
<append 9>
('pl790670523', '', 'US55240280', '2013-05-26 12:30:21 +0000', '0', 'qwerty', 'Cmt', 'ap19788')

which is running well through code also and I'm able to save everything in SQLite successfully.

Before this i made UNION query stuff dynamic but that started giving some syntax error. Anyways, this is running well for me.

Answer 4

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned prepared statements. Unless you are using SQL on its own and not within any other language, then I would think that prepared statements wrapped in a transaction would be the most efficient way of inserting multiple rows.

Answer 5

Sqlite3 can't do that directly in SQL except via a SELECT, and while SELECT can return a "row" of expressions, I know of no way to make it return a phony column.

However, the CLI can do it:

.import FILE TABLE     Import data from FILE into TABLE
.separator STRING      Change separator used by output mode and .import

$ sqlite3 /tmp/test.db
SQLite version 3.5.9
Enter ".help" for instructions
sqlite> create table abc (a);
sqlite> .import /dev/tty abc
1
2
3
99
^D
sqlite> select * from abc;
1
2
3
99
sqlite> 

If you do put a loop around an INSERT, rather than using the CLI .import command, then be sure to follow the advice in the sqlite FAQ for INSERT speed:

By default, each INSERT statement is its own transaction. But if you surround multiple INSERT statements with BEGIN...COMMIT then all the inserts are grouped into a single transaction. The time needed to commit the transaction is amortized over all the enclosed insert statements and so the time per insert statement is greatly reduced.

Another option is to run PRAGMA synchronous=OFF. This command will cause SQLite to not wait on data to reach the disk surface, which will make write operations appear to be much faster. But if you lose power in the middle of a transaction, your database file might go corrupt.

Answer 6

INSERT INTO tabela(coluna1,coluna2) 
SELECT 'texto','outro'
UNION ALL 
SELECT 'mais texto','novo texto';