How to insert without specifying the column name? - sql

Question

Having many tables (for example two):
|PEOPLE_ID|PEOPLE_NAME|PEOPLE_ACCOUNT|OTHER_NULLABLE_COLUMNS|
|001 |"Andrea" |NULL |OTHER_NULLABLE_COLUMNS|
|002 |"..." |NULL |OTHER_NULLABLE_COLUMNS|
and:
|PET_ID|PET_NAME|PET_OWNER|OTHER_NULLABLE_COLUMNS|
|001 |"Fido" |NULL |OTHER_NULLABLE_COLUMNS|
|002 |"..." |NULL |OTHER_NULLABLE_COLUMNS|
And then I need a generic stored procedure to insert to any table passing the name of the table (pet, people) and the id and name as parameters.
exec sp_inserttottable 'people', '456', 'Gustavo'
exec sp_inserttottable 'pet', '852', 'Scooby'
But in the definition of the Stored Procedure I can't do this:
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_inserttottable
#tableName nvarchar(50),
#codeToInsert nvarchar(4),
#detailToInsert nvarchar(100)
AS
DECLARE #cmd AS NVARCHAR(max)
SET #cmd = 'INSERT INTO ' + #tableName + ' VALUES(' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ' )' + ' '
EXEC sp_executesql #cmd
It throw me an error I need to specify the column names like this:
'INSERT INTO ' + #tableNames + ' (PEOPLE_ID, PEOPLE_NAME) VALUES(' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ' )' + ' '
But if I do that the procedure can't be generic.
If I can do something like this, put values by column order:
'INSERT INTO ' + #tableNames + ' (1, 2) VALUES(' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ' )' + ' '
How to achieve this?
(UPDATE) Applying the Solution of #Gordon Linoff
First using DEFAULT KEYWORD
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_InsertTableType
#tableNames nvarchar(50),
#codeToInsert nvarchar(4),
#detailToInsert nvarchar(100)
AS
DECLARE #cmd AS NVARCHAR(max)
SET #cmd = 'INSERT INTO ' + #tableNames + ' VALUES(' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ', DEFAULT)' + ' ';
--SET #cmd = 'INSERT INTO TTCODI_NACI_UPDATE(CODE, DESCRI) VALUES(' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ')' + ' '
EXEC sp_executesql #cmd
Then when I call:
exec sp_InsertTableType 'TTCODI_NACI', '1000', 'kuwaiti'
It throws me: Invalid column name '%.*ls'.
And the second Alternative:
Creating the view:
create view TTCODI_NACI_UPDATE
as
SELECT CO_NACI AS CODE, DE_NACI AS DESCRI
, DE_ABRE_NACI AS ABRE
FROM TTCODI_NACI;
Changing the Stored Procedure:
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_InsertTableType
#tableNames nvarchar(50),
#codeToInsert nvarchar(4),
#detailToInsert nvarchar(100)
AS
DECLARE #cmd AS NVARCHAR(max)
--SET #cmd = 'INSERT INTO ' + #tableNames + ' VALUES(' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ', DEFAULT)' + ' ';
SET #cmd = 'INSERT INTO TTCODI_NACI_UPDATE(CODE, DESCRI) VALUES('
+ #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ')' + ' '
EXEC sp_executesql #cmd
When I call:
exec sp_InsertTableType 'TTCODI_NACI', '1000', 'kuwaiti'
It throws me: Update or insert of view or function '%.*ls' failed because it contains a derived or constant field.

Answer 1

This is a solution to your problem, but I don't really advocate it. Your tables are for different entities, so I'm not so sure that a generic stored procedure is a good idea.
One solution is to use the DEFAULT keyword:
SET #cmd = 'INSERT INTO ' + #tableName + ' VALUES(DEFAULT, ' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ' )' + ' ';
Oh, I really don't like that. It means that the insert depends on the order that the columns are defined in the table -- and woe to anyone who adds a new column and messes up this code, far away from the creation of the new column.
Another solution that I'd be slightly more comfortable with is to create views such as:
create v_people_for_update as
select people_id as id, people_name as name, people_account as account
from people;
Then, insert into the view:
SET #cmd = 'INSERT INTO ' + #viewName(name, account) + ' VALUES(, ' + #codeToInsert + ',' + #detailToInsert + ' )' + ' ';
This at least lets you specify the columns (a good thing) and the collection of views can be named so it is obvious that this stored procedure is working on them.
However, if you have tables with such similar structures, then you should probably combine them into one table and dispense with the idea of using dynamic SQL to choose among different tables. Just use one table and add a column specifying the type of thing that each row refers to.