path: root/doc/src/sgml/man7/VALUES.7

'\" t
.\"     Title: VALUES
.\"    Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2024
.\"    Manual: PostgreSQL 16.2 Documentation
.\"    Source: PostgreSQL 16.2
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "VALUES" "7" "2024" "PostgreSQL 16.2" "PostgreSQL 16.2 Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
VALUES \- compute a set of rows
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
VALUES ( \fIexpression\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] ) [, \&.\&.\&.]
    [ ORDER BY \fIsort_expression\fR [ ASC | DESC | USING \fIoperator\fR ] [, \&.\&.\&.] ]
    [ LIMIT { \fIcount\fR | ALL } ]
    [ OFFSET \fIstart\fR [ ROW | ROWS ] ]
    [ FETCH { FIRST | NEXT } [ \fIcount\fR ] { ROW | ROWS } ONLY ]
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
\fBVALUES\fR
computes a row value or set of row values specified by value expressions\&. It is most commonly used to generate a
\(lqconstant table\(rq
within a larger command, but it can be used on its own\&.
.PP
When more than one row is specified, all the rows must have the same number of elements\&. The data types of the resulting table\*(Aqs columns are determined by combining the explicit or inferred types of the expressions appearing in that column, using the same rules as for
UNION
(see
Section\ \&10.5)\&.
.PP
Within larger commands,
\fBVALUES\fR
is syntactically allowed anywhere that
\fBSELECT\fR
is\&. Because it is treated like a
\fBSELECT\fR
by the grammar, it is possible to use the
ORDER BY,
LIMIT
(or equivalently
FETCH FIRST), and
OFFSET
clauses with a
\fBVALUES\fR
command\&.
.SH "PARAMETERS"
.PP
\fIexpression\fR
.RS 4
A constant or expression to compute and insert at the indicated place in the resulting table (set of rows)\&. In a
\fBVALUES\fR
list appearing at the top level of an
\fBINSERT\fR, an
\fIexpression\fR
can be replaced by
DEFAULT
to indicate that the destination column\*(Aqs default value should be inserted\&.
DEFAULT
cannot be used when
\fBVALUES\fR
appears in other contexts\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIsort_expression\fR
.RS 4
An expression or integer constant indicating how to sort the result rows\&. This expression can refer to the columns of the
\fBVALUES\fR
result as
column1,
column2, etc\&. For more details see
ORDER BY Clause
in the
\fBSELECT\fR(7)
documentation\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIoperator\fR
.RS 4
A sorting operator\&. For details see
ORDER BY Clause
in the
\fBSELECT\fR(7)
documentation\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIcount\fR
.RS 4
The maximum number of rows to return\&. For details see
LIMIT Clause
in the
\fBSELECT\fR(7)
documentation\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIstart\fR
.RS 4
The number of rows to skip before starting to return rows\&. For details see
LIMIT Clause
in the
\fBSELECT\fR(7)
documentation\&.
.RE
.SH "NOTES"
.PP
\fBVALUES\fR
lists with very large numbers of rows should be avoided, as you might encounter out\-of\-memory failures or poor performance\&.
\fBVALUES\fR
appearing within
\fBINSERT\fR
is a special case (because the desired column types are known from the
\fBINSERT\fR\*(Aqs target table, and need not be inferred by scanning the
\fBVALUES\fR
list), so it can handle larger lists than are practical in other contexts\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
A bare
\fBVALUES\fR
command:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
VALUES (1, \*(Aqone\*(Aq), (2, \*(Aqtwo\*(Aq), (3, \*(Aqthree\*(Aq);
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
This will return a table of two columns and three rows\&. It\*(Aqs effectively equivalent to:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
SELECT 1 AS column1, \*(Aqone\*(Aq AS column2
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, \*(Aqtwo\*(Aq
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, \*(Aqthree\*(Aq;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
More usually,
\fBVALUES\fR
is used within a larger SQL command\&. The most common use is in
\fBINSERT\fR:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
INSERT INTO films (code, title, did, date_prod, kind)
    VALUES (\*(AqT_601\*(Aq, \*(AqYojimbo\*(Aq, 106, \*(Aq1961\-06\-16\*(Aq, \*(AqDrama\*(Aq);
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
In the context of
\fBINSERT\fR, entries of a
\fBVALUES\fR
list can be
DEFAULT
to indicate that the column default should be used here instead of specifying a value:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
INSERT INTO films VALUES
    (\*(AqUA502\*(Aq, \*(AqBananas\*(Aq, 105, DEFAULT, \*(AqComedy\*(Aq, \*(Aq82 minutes\*(Aq),
    (\*(AqT_601\*(Aq, \*(AqYojimbo\*(Aq, 106, DEFAULT, \*(AqDrama\*(Aq, DEFAULT);
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
\fBVALUES\fR
can also be used where a sub\-\fBSELECT\fR
might be written, for example in a
FROM
clause:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
SELECT f\&.*
  FROM films f, (VALUES(\*(AqMGM\*(Aq, \*(AqHorror\*(Aq), (\*(AqUA\*(Aq, \*(AqSci\-Fi\*(Aq)) AS t (studio, kind)
  WHERE f\&.studio = t\&.studio AND f\&.kind = t\&.kind;

UPDATE employees SET salary = salary * v\&.increase
  FROM (VALUES(1, 200000, 1\&.2), (2, 400000, 1\&.4)) AS v (depno, target, increase)
  WHERE employees\&.depno = v\&.depno AND employees\&.sales >= v\&.target;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
Note that an
AS
clause is required when
\fBVALUES\fR
is used in a
FROM
clause, just as is true for
\fBSELECT\fR\&. It is not required that the
AS
clause specify names for all the columns, but it\*(Aqs good practice to do so\&. (The default column names for
\fBVALUES\fR
are
column1,
column2, etc\&. in
PostgreSQL, but these names might be different in other database systems\&.)
.PP
When
\fBVALUES\fR
is used in
\fBINSERT\fR, the values are all automatically coerced to the data type of the corresponding destination column\&. When it\*(Aqs used in other contexts, it might be necessary to specify the correct data type\&. If the entries are all quoted literal constants, coercing the first is sufficient to determine the assumed type for all:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
SELECT * FROM machines
WHERE ip_address IN (VALUES(\*(Aq192\&.168\&.0\&.1\*(Aq::inet), (\*(Aq192\&.168\&.0\&.10\*(Aq), (\*(Aq192\&.168\&.1\&.43\*(Aq));
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.if n \{\
.sp
.\}
.RS 4
.it 1 an-trap
.nr an-no-space-flag 1
.nr an-break-flag 1
.br
.ps +1
\fBTip\fR
.ps -1
.br
.PP
For simple
IN
tests, it\*(Aqs better to rely on the
list\-of\-scalars
form of
IN
than to write a
\fBVALUES\fR
query as shown above\&. The list of scalars method requires less writing and is often more efficient\&.
.sp .5v
.RE
.SH "COMPATIBILITY"
.PP
\fBVALUES\fR
conforms to the SQL standard\&.
LIMIT
and
OFFSET
are
PostgreSQL
extensions; see also under
\fBSELECT\fR(7)\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBINSERT\fR(7), \fBSELECT\fR(7)