More about Adding Records | Mastering MySQL 4

INSERT also allows a syntax similar to the one used by an UPDATE statement. Instead of saying the following:

mysql> INSERT INTO customer_sales_values(first_name, surname, value)  VALUES('Charles', 'Dube', 0);

you could say this:

mysql> INSERT INTO customer_sales_values SET first_name =  'Charles', surname='Dube', value=0;

You can also do a limited form of calculation when you add records. To demonstrate, add another field onto the customer_sales_value table:

mysql> ALTER TABLE customer_sales_values ADD value2 INT;

Now, you can insert into this table and populate value2 with twice the value:

mysql> INSERT INTO customer_sales_values(first_name, surname, value,  value2) VALUES('Gladys', 'Malherbe', 5, value*2);

This record now contains the following:

mysql> SELECT * FROM customer_sales_values WHERE first_name='Gladys'; +------------+----------+-------+--------+ | first_name | surname  | value | value2 | +------------+----------+-------+--------+ | Gladys     | Malherbe |     5 |     10 | +------------+----------+-------+--------+