If you don't want to specify values for columns that have default values, or you want to specify values to columns in an order different than how they are defined, you can provide a column list in the INSERT statement. If a column is omitted in the column, SQL Server applies 3 rules:

* If default value is defined for the column, that default value will be used.

* If no default value is defined for the column and NULL is allowed, NULL will be used.

* If no default value is defined for the column and NULL is not allowed, SQL Server will reject the insert statement with an error.

The following tutorial exercise gives you some good examples:

INSERT INTO ggl_links (url, id)

VALUES ('www.rendc.org',103)

GO

(1 row(s) affected)

INSERT INTO ggl_links (id) VALUES (110)

GO

Msg 515, Level 16, State 2, Line 1

Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'url',

table 'GlobalGuideLineDatabase.dbo.ggl_links'; column does

not allow nulls. INSERT fails.

The statement has been terminated.

SELECT * FROM ggl_links

GO

id url notes counts created

101 www.rendc.org NULL 0 2006-04-30

102 www.rendc.org NULL 0 2007-05-19

103 www.rendc.org NULL NULL 2007-05-19