Insert multiple rows WITHOUT repeating the “INSERT INTO …” part of the statement?

Question

I know I\'ve done this before years ago, but I can\'t remember the syntax, and I can\'t find it anywhere due to pulling up tons of help docs and articles about \"bulk import

Answer 1

Using INSERT INTO ... VALUES syntax like in Daniel Vassallo's answer there is one annoying limitation:

From MSDN

The maximum number of rows that can be constructed by inserting rows directly in the VALUES list is 1000

The easiest way to omit this limitation is to use derived table like:

INSERT INTO dbo.Mytable(ID, Name)
SELECT ID, Name 
FROM (
   VALUES (1, 'a'),
          (2, 'b'),
          --...
          -- more than 1000 rows
)sub (ID, Name);

LiveDemo

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This will work starting from SQL Server 2008+