VALUES Clause

The VALUES clause can specify values to insert into one or more columns. When you use the VALUES clause, you can insert only one row at a time.

Each value that follows the VALUES keyword is assigned to the corresponding column listed in the INSERT INTO clause (or in column order, if a list of columns is not specified). If you are inserting a quoted string into a column, the maximum length that can be inserted without error is 256 bytes.


VALUES Clause

|--VALUES------------------------------------------------------->

      .-,-----------------------------------------.      
      V                                           |      
>--(----+-input_var--+------------------------+-+-+--)----------|
        |            |  (1)                   | |        
        |            +-------:--indicator_var-+ |        
        |            |  (2)                   | |        
        |            '-------$--indicator_var-' |        
        +-+-NULL------------------------------+-+        
        | +-USER------------------------------+ |        
        | |                   (3)             | |        
        | +-| Quoted String |-----------------+ |        
        | |                    (4)            | |        
        | +-| Literal Number |----------------+ |        
        | |  (2)                          (5) | |        
        | +-------| Constant Expression |-----+ |        
        | |                       (6)         | |        
        | '-| Column Expression |-------------' |        
        |                          (7)          |        
        '-+-| Literal Collection |-----+--------'        
          |                 (8)        |                 
          +-| Literal Row |------------+                 
          |                (9)         |                 
          +-| Expression |-------------+                 
          +-'literal_Boolean'----------+                 
          '-literal_opaque-------------'

Notes:

Element	Description	Restrictions	Syntax
indicator_var	Variable to show if SQL statement returns NULL to input_var	See the HCL Informix Enterprise Replication Guide.	Language specific
input_var	Variable that holds value to insert. This can be a collection variable.	Can contain any value option of VALUES clause	Language specific
literal_opaque	Literal representation for an opaque data type	Must be recognized by the input support function of the opaque data type	See documentation of the opaque type.
literal_Boolean	Literal representation of a BOOLEAN value as a single character	Either `'t'` (TRUE) or `'f'` (FALSE)	Quoted String

In Informix ESQL/C, if you use an input_var variable to specify the value, you can insert character strings longer than 256 bytes into a table.

For the keywords and the types of literal values that are valid in the VALUES clause, refer to Constant Expressions.