Vol. I · A Postgres Handbook

The Query & the Schema

A reading-room reference for writing PostgreSQL by hand — selects to window functions, with the schema in plain view.

EasyINSERT, UPDATE, DELETE

INSERT: multiple rows at once

The query

SQL
INSERT INTO departments (dept_name, location, budget)
VALUES
  ('Engineering', 'Bangalore', 5000000),
  ('Marketing', 'Mumbai', 2000000),
  ('Finance', 'Pune', 1500000),
  ('HR', 'Delhi', 800000)
RETURNING dept_id, dept_name;
Tested against PostgreSQL 16

Note

“Multi-row INSERT is more efficient than separate INSERT statements. Single transaction.

Tables referenced