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: single row into employees

The query

SQL
INSERT INTO employees
  (first_name, last_name, email, dept_id, hire_date, salary, job_title, status)
VALUES
  ('Rahul', 'Sharma', 'rahul.sharma@company.com', 2, '2024-01-15', 65000, 'Software Engineer', 'active')
RETURNING emp_id, first_name, last_name, hire_date;
Tested against PostgreSQL 16

Note

“RETURNING clause returns values from the inserted row — great for getting auto-generated IDs.

Tables referenced