Drupal 6 SQL insert examples (and syntax)

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: June 4, 2016

Drupal 6 SQL insert FAQ: Can you share an example of how to write a Drupal 6 SQL insert statement?

There are at least two ways to write a SQL insert statement in Drupal 6, and I'll demonstrate both of those here.

A Drupal 6 SQL INSERT example using db_query

The first method involves writing an old-fashioned SQL INSERT statement with the Drupal 6 db_query function, like this:

# do the database insert
db_query("INSERT INTO {reminders} (uid, event, event_time) 
  VALUES (%d, '%s', '%s')", $uid, $event, $datetime);

In this case I have a Drupal database table named 'reminders', and I'm inserting those three variables into the table.

Drupal 6 SQL INSERT using drupal_write_record

I'm not a Drupal expert by any stretch, and from what I just read this second Drupal 6 insert syntax appears to be favored over writing your own SQL:

# another way to do the database insert
$data = array(
  'uid' => $uid,
  'event' => $event,
  'event_time' => $datetime
);
drupal_write_record('minime_reminders', $data);

I'll try to read more about this second approach and see why it's "preferred", but until then I thought I'd share both ways to perform a Drupal 6 SQL insert.

Please note that if you're using Drupal 7, I know for sure that this SQL insert approach has changed, but I'm not ready to tackle that subject just yet.

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