How to insert new row to database with AUTO_INCREMENT column without specifying column names ?

Question

I have a table with the following columns:

• id - INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT
• name - VARCHAR(20)
• group - VARCHAR(20)

I know that I can add a row like this:

INSERT INTO table_name (name, group) VALUES ('my name', 'my group')

I wonder if there is a way to add a row without specifying the column names, like when there is no AUTO_INCREMENT column ?

Answer 1

You can just explicitly insert a NULL into the auto_increment column:

INSERT INTO table_name VALUES (NULL, 'my name', 'my group')

Answer 2

Just add the column names, yes you can use Null instead but is is a very bad idea to not use column names in any insert, ever.

Answer 3

Even better, use DEFAULT instead of NULL. You want to store the default value, not a NULL that might trigger a default value.

But you'd better name all columns, with a piece of SQL you can create all the INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE's you need. Just check the information_schema and construct the queries you need. There is no need to do it all by hand, SQL can help you out.