PHP PDO INSERT INTO - Inserting Data

Inserting Data (INSERT INTO)

Inserting data in PDO can be done in several ways. For fast insertion of static data, we use the exec() method, which returns the number of inserted rows.

EXAMPLE

<?php
$server = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$database = "pdo_database";

try {
    $dsn = "mysql:host=$server;dbname=$database;charset=utf8mb4";
    $connection = new PDO($dsn, $username, $password);
    $connection->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

    // CREATING ALL ROWS IN A SINGLE STATEMENT - this is the most efficient way!
    // Each row is separated by a comma, and the SQL parser treats them as individual entries.
    $sql = "INSERT INTO users (first_name, last_name, email) VALUES 
    ('John', 'Smith', 'john@example.com'),
    ('Mary', 'Taylor', 'mary@example.com'),
    ('Luke', 'Miller', 'luke@example.com'),
    ('Anna', 'Davis', 'anna@example.com'),
    ('Mark', 'Wilson', 'mark@example.com')";

    // The exec() method returns the NUMBER OF ROWS INSERTED (in this case 5).
    // This number can be used for dynamic confirmation of insertion success.
    $rows_inserted = $connection->exec($sql);
    
    echo "$rows_inserted new rows were successfully inserted into the users table!";
} catch (PDOException $e) {
    echo "Insertion error: " . $e->getMessage();
}

// Closing the connection
$connection = null;
?>

RESULT

The result will be displayed here...

In the example above, we inserted five new people into the users table. Since we separate each INSERT command with a semicolon, we can update the database with multiple records at once with a single method call.

The exec() method is suitable for commands where we do not need returned data.

Inserting multiple rows at once increases application efficiency.

Always verify the success of the operation within a try...catch block.