PostgreSQL: INSERT INTO syntax error - sql

Question

I'm following an older tutorial learning Postgres, so it's possible maybe something has changed since it was published. In the tutorial (using psql) I create a table then do some insert statements. Here is the tutorial and corresponding psql commands that cause error:
http://www.postgresqlforbeginners.com/2010/11/create-table-and-constraints.html
create table people(
id int PRIMARY KEY,
name varchar NOT NULL
);
insert into people(0,'Steve Jobs');
insert into people(1,'Mike Markkula');
insert into people(2,'Mike Scott');
insert into people(3,'John Sculley');
insert into people(4,'Michael Spindler');
insert into people(5,'Gil Amelio');
insert into people(6,'Mike Scott');
I get this error for each insert statement:
ERROR: syntax error at or near "0"
LINE 1: insert into people(0,'Steve Jobs');
^
I've tried copy pasting, capitalizing the sql commands (ie INSERT), running the command from shell outside of psql, adding spaces, using " instead of ' quotes... All result in the same errors. Has something changed or am I possibly doing something wrong?

Answer 1

The problem is the missing values (as noted in a comment).
I want to make some suggestions. First, whenever you use insert, you should always list the columns. This is especially important if you are learning the language -- you should be learning good habits.
Second, you don't need multiple inserts. A shorter way to insert multiple rows is:
insert into people (id, name)
values (0,'Steve Jobs'),
(1,'Mike Markkula'),
(2,'Mike Scott'),
(3,'John Sculley'),
(4,'Michael Spindler'),
(5,'Gil Amelio'),
(6,'Mike Scott');
And you should learn about serial. A more common way to write this code would be:
create table people (
id serial PRIMARY KEY,
name varchar NOT NULL
);
insert into people (name)
values ('Steve Jobs'),
('Mike Markkula'),
('Mike Scott'),
('John Sculley'),
('Michael Spindler'),
('Gil Amelio'),
('Mike Scott');
The id is assigned automatically by the database (starting at 1 rather than 0).
I should add: I am personally uncomfortable with having varchar without a length. This is perfectly fine in Postgres, but some databases would interpret it as varchar(1).