Home Forums Article Discussions Article Discussions by Author Discuss Content Posted by Gregory Larsen Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 9: Adding Records to a table using INSERT Statement RE: Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 9: Adding Records to a table using INSERT Statement

  • August 24, 2016 at 9:52 am

    #1897236

    While the column list is not necessarily required by the INSERT statement, I have learned that it is at least a best practice to always include it.

    If the order of the columns within the table changes, you may start receiving errors or corrupt data (arguably worse) that are difficult to troubleshoot. By always including the column list, you avoid such issues because you are explicitly specifying which column to insert which value into.

    Always including the column list also keeps your insert statement from breaking when a new column is added to the table (assuming the column is nullable or has a default value constraint).