Leave column out of Oracle insert statement - oracle

Question

I have an insert statement that I am trying to run against an Oracle database. The insert statement is very simple, and I only want to insert a value into one column. The table itself has more than one column, but I am only interested in filling one of the columns with data. The format of my query is similar to the one below:
insert into myTable (col1) Values (val1)
However, this throws the following error:
ORA-00904: "col1": invalid identifier
I've checked to make sure that the column is named correctly, and my only other thought is that something is wrong with my syntax. There are no constraints on the table such as primary keys. Is it possible to only insert values into certain columns when executing an insert statement in Oracle?

Answer 1

Check that you didn't quote the column name on creation of the table. If you did, the column name is stored as you quoted it. For example:
create table table1 (
id number(2)
)
has a different column name to this
create table table2 (
"id" number(2)
)
Oracle by default stores the (unquoted) column names in uppercase. Quoted are stored as is.
You can use a DESC table_name to see how the columns are stored.
The following
select id from table1
select iD from table1
select ID from table1
fetch the records, while only
select "id" from table2
will fetch records.
select id from table2
will throw the ORA-00904 : "ID" : invalid identifier error.
You may have inadvertently done the quoting during creation while using tools as established below:
https://community.oracle.com/thread/2349926
Btw: Yes it is possible to insert records for only one column, as long as the other columns do not have a NOT NULL constraint on them.

Answer 2

Actually, I think you may be double quoting the column in the insert statement (not on table creation), although your example is misleading. I guess this because of your error, which says "col1" is invalid, not "COL1" is invalid. Consider this simple test:
SQL> create table mytable
(
col1 varchar2(10)
)
Table created.
SQL> -- incorrect column name, without double quotes
SQL> insert into mytable(col2) values ('abc')
insert into mytable(col2) values ('abc')
Error at line 9
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at line 11
ORA-00904: "COL2": invalid identifier
SQL> -- incorrect column name, with double quotes
SQL> insert into mytable("col2") values ('abc')
insert into mytable("col2") values ('abc')
Error at line 12
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at line 11
ORA-00904: "col2": invalid identifier
SQL> -- correct column name, without double quotes (works)
SQL> insert into mytable(col1) values ('abc')
1 row created.
SQL> -- correct column name, with double quotes (fails)
SQL> insert into mytable("col1") values ('abc')
insert into mytable("col1") values ('abc')
Error at line 18
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at line 11
ORA-00904: "col1": invalid identifier
The last failed insert attempt is what I think you may be doing:
insert into mytable("col1") values ...
based on the error message:
ORA-00904: "col1": invalid identifier
So the solution would simply be remove the double quoting around the column name in the insert.

Answer 3

It's most probably a syntax error
Desc myTable;
insert into myTable (col1) Values ('val1')
Ensure col1 is a valid column in the table, and you're simply not trying to say 'select the left-most column.
edit: Is it possible to only insert values into certain columns when executing an insert statement in Oracle?
Yes if you want to only insert into certain columns then simply specify it
e.g.
insert into myTable (col1, col2, col6) Values ('val1', 'val2', 'val3');
This will only work if the column itself doesn't have a NOT NULL constraint - in which case it will not allow a value to be enetered (unless again there's a default value).