Generate n rows of NULL in PostgreSQL

Question

I have a table that looks like this:

id, integer, Primary Key, not null
name, character varying
created, timestamp without timezone, not null, default: now()

I want to generate n rows with NULL a name field.

I know that I can do:

INSERT INTO
  employee (name)
VALUES
  (NULL),
  (NULL)...

But I'd prefer to do something like this:

INSERT INTO
  employee (name)
SELECT
  NULL
FROM
  dummy_table_with_n_rows

And I would be able to choose the n.

user330315 · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-15 20:01:54Z

36

INSERT INTO
  employee (name)
SELECT
  NULL 
FROM
  generate_series(1,10000) i;

answered May 15, 2013 at 20:01

user330315

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1 Comment

@DanielPatz: Don't miss the variations of the function too. Some are quite neat: postgresql.org/docs/9.2/static/functions-srf.html