Inserting Data into Flex Tables

You can load data into a Vertica flex table using a standard INSERT statement, specifying data for one or more columns. When you use INSERT, Vertica populates any materialized columns and stores the VMap data in the __raw__ column.

Vertica provides two ways to use INSERT with flex tables:

  • INSERT ... VALUES
  • INSERT ... SELECT

Inserting Values into Flex Tables

To insert data values into a flex table, use an INSERT ... VALUES statement. If you do not specify any columns in your INSERT ... VALUES statement, Vertica positionally assigns values to the real columns of the flex table.

This example shows two ways to insert values into a simple flex table. For both statements, Vertica assigns the values 1 and 'x' to columns a and b, respectively. This example inserts values into the two real columns defined in the flex table:

=> CREATE FLEX TABLE flex0 (a INT, b VARCHAR);
CREATE TABLE
=> INSERT INTO flex0 VALUES (1, 'x');
 OUTPUT
--------
      1
(1 row)

This example inserts values into a flex table without any real columns:

=> CREATE FLEX TABLE flex1();
 CREATE TABLE
=> INSERT INTO flex1(a,b) VALUES (1, 'x');
 OUTPUT
--------
      1
(1 row)

For the preceding example, the __raw__ column contains the inserted data:

=> SELECT MapToString(__raw__) FROM flex1;
           MapToString
---------------------------------
{
"a" : "1",
"b" : "x"
}
(1 row)

Using INSERT ... SELECT with Flex Tables

Using an INSERT ... SELECT statement with a flex table is similar to using INSERT ... SELECT with a regular table. The SELECT statement returns the data to insert into the target table.

However, Vertica does not require that you balance the number of columns and values. If you do not specify a value for a column, Vertica inserts NULL. 

In the next example, Vertica copies the a and b values from the flex1 table, and creates columns c, d, e, and f. Because the statement does not specify a value for f, Vertica assigns it a NULL.

=> CREATE FLEX TABLE flex2();
CREATE TABLE
=> INSERT INTO flex2(a,b) SELECT a,b, '2016-08-10 11:10' c, 'Hello' d, 3.1415 e, f from flex1;
 OUTPUT
--------
     1
(1 row)
=> SELECT MapToString(__raw__) FROM flex2;
                            MapToString
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{
"a" : "1",
"b" : "x",
"c" : "2016-08-10 11:10",

"d" : "Hello",
"e" : "3.1415",
"f" : null
}
(1 row)

Inserting __raw__ Columns into a Flex Table

Inserting a __raw__ column into a flex table inserts the entire source VMap into the target table. Vertica does not assign the __raw__ column to any target column. Its position in the SELECT statement does not matter.

The following two INSERT statements are equivalent. 

=> INSERT INTO flex4(a,b) SELECT a, __raw__, b FROM flex3;
=> INSERT INTO flex4(a,b) SELECT a, b, __raw__ FROM flex3;

Error Handling

Type coercion errors occur only with real columns. The insert operation fails as follows: 

=> CREATE FLEX TABLE my_table(a INT, b VARCHAR);
 CREATE TABLE
=> INSERT INTO my_table(a, b) VALUES ('xyz', '5');
ERROR: Invalid input syntax for integer: "xyz"

If you try to insert values into the __raw__ column, the insert fails as follows: 

=> CREATE FLEX TABLE my_table(a INT, b VARCHAR);
 CREATE TABLE
=> INSERT INTO my_table(a,b,__raw__) VALUES (1,'x','abcdef');
ERROR 7372: Cannot assign value to "__raw__" column

See Also