将INSERT与INSERT UPDATE插入具有许多NOT NULL约束列的表中

Question

It's recommended do define column names in INSERT statement, eg:

INSERT INTO TableName(FirstColumn, SecondColumn, ThirdColumn,...) VALUES ('A','B','C',...);

But if there are 10+ columns in table this could not help that much to find relation between column name and value. In this case it's better to break insertion in two parts (insertion of primary key and update of other fields):

INSERT INTO TableName(PKColumn) VALUES (12345);
UPDATE TableName SET FirstColumn = 'A', SecondColumn = 'B', ThirdColumn = 'C',... 
WHERE PKColumn = 12345;

The problem is for tables with lots of NOT NULL constraint columns so you have to define them in INSERT statement and it becomes unreadable. Is there any good solution?

Answer 1

You do not have to define all the column in an INSERT.

It's poor practice to put tight restraints on columns where it is not required.

It's much better to define the default values for columns that are not required or are typically the same value.

`QTY` int(11) DEFAULT '1',
`NUMBER` int(11) DEFAULT '0',
`PRICE` decimal(7,2) DEFAULT '0.00',

When I am updating a table with INSERT and UPDATE I usually just do both, rather than check to see if the record exists before doing an insert. I do she INSERT then follow the INSERT with and UPDATE.

I can check the INSERT for a duplicate:

if (mysql_errno() == 1062){$dups++;}

And I check to see if the UPDATE updated anything.

if (mysql_affected_rows() > 0){$update++;}

Answer 2

What I do very often is to align column names and values:

INSERT INTO TableName 
  (FirstColumn, SecondColumn, ThirdColumn, FourthColumn...) 
VALUES 
  ('A',         'B',          'C',         'D', ...);

This makes quite long lines, but with the current trend for wide-screen monitors this isn't such a big problem nowadays (I think).

If you need to do this very often, you might want to consider writing a stored procedure where you can pass named parameters:

execute do_insert_tableX @FirstColumn = 'A', @SecondColumn = 'B', ...

Answer 3

Here is a suggestion if you are using SMSS:

1. Go to object explorer.
2. Expand your Database then expand its tables.
3. Right Click on the table for which you want to generate a dummy insert statement.
4. select this option : Script Table as > INSERT To > New Query Editor Window.
5. It will create a dummy insert statement you just need to remove the unwanted columns from the list and fill the values.

I do the things like that if I have so many columns in my table.

Example :