PostgreSQL Insert into table with subquery selecting from multiple other tables - sql

Question

I am learning SQL (postgres) and am trying to insert a record into a table that references records from two other tables, as foreign keys.
Below is the syntax I am using for creating the tables and records:
-- Create a person table + insert single row
CREATE TABLE person (
pname VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (pname)
);
INSERT INTO person VALUES ('personOne');
-- Create a city table + insert single row
CREATE TABLE city (
cname VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (cname)
);
INSERT INTO city VALUES ('cityOne');
-- Create a employee table w/ForeignKey reference
CREATE TABLE employee (
ename VARCHAR(255) REFERENCES person(pname) NOT NULL,
ecity VARCHAR(255) REFERENCES city(cname) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY(ename, ecity)
);
-- create employee entry referencing existing records
INSERT INTO employee VALUES(
SELECT pname FROM person
WHERE pname='personOne' AND <-- ISSUE
SELECT cname FROM city
WHERE cname='cityOne
);
Notice in the last block of code, where I'm doing an INSERT into the employee table, I don't know how to string together multiple SELECT sub-queries to get both the existing records from the person and city table such that I can create a new employee entry with attributes as such:
ename='personOne'
ecity='cityOne'
The textbook I have for class doesn't dive into sub-queries like this and I can't find any examples similar enough to mine such that I can understand how to adapt them for this use case.
Insight will be much appreciated.

Answer 1

There doesn’t appear to be any obvious relationship between city and person which will make your life hard
The general pattern for turning a select that has two base tables giving info, into an insert is:
INSERT INTO table(column,list,here)
SELECT column,list,here
FROM
a
JOIN b ON a.x = b.y
In your case there isn’t really anything to join on because your one-column tables have no column in common. Provide eg a cityname in Person (because it seems more likely that one city has many person) then you can do
INSERT INTO employee(personname,cityname)
SELECT p.pname, c.cname
FROM
person p
JOIN city c ON p.cityname = c.cname
But even then, the tables are related between themselves and don’t need the third table so it’s perhaps something of an academic exercise only, not something you’d do in the real world
If you just want to mix every person with every city you can do:
INSERT INTO employee(personname,cityname)
SELECT pname, cname
FROM
person p
CROSS JOIN city c
But be warned, two people and two cities will cause 4 rows to be inserted, and so on (20 people and 40 cities, 800 rows. Fairly useless imho)
However, I trust that the general pattern shown first will suffice for your learning; write a SELECT that shows the data you want to insert, then simply write INSERT INTO table(columns) above it. The number of columns inserted to must match the number of columns selected. Don’t forget that you can select fixed values if no column from the query has the info (INSERT INTO X(p,c,age) SELECT personname, cityname, 23 FROM ...)

Answer 2

The following will work for you:
INSERT INTO employee
SELECT pname, cname FROM person, city
WHERE pname='personOne' AND cname='cityOne';
This is a cross join producing a cartesian product of the two tables (since there is nothing to link the two). It reads slightly oddly, given that you could just as easily have inserted the values directly. But I assume this is because it is a learning exercise.
Please note that there is a typo in your create employee. You are missing a comma before the primary key.