This article demonstrates how to execute INSERT Query from Python to add a new row into the MySQL table.
In this lesson, you’ll learn the following Python MySQL insert operations using a ‘MySQL Connector’ module.
- Insert single and multiple rows into the database table.
- Use a parameterized query to insert a Python variable value (Integer, string, float, double, and DateTime) into a database table.
Further Reading:
Table of contents
Prerequisite
Before moving further, Please make sure you have the following in place: –
- Username and password to connect MySQL
- MySQL table name in which you want to insert data.
I have created a table ‘Laptop’ in the MySQL server to insert records in it. See its column structure in the image.

If a table is not present in your MySQL server, you can refer to our article to create a MySQL table from Python.
You can also download a SQL query file, which contains SQL queries for table creation and data so that you can use this table for your INSERT operations.
Insert a Single Row into MySQL table from Python
How to Insert Into MySQL table from Python
- Connect to MySQL from Python
Refer to Python MySQL database connection to connect to MySQL database from Python using MySQL Connector module
- Define a SQL Insert query
Next, prepare a SQL INSERT query to insert a row into a table. in the insert query, we mention column names and their values to insert in a table.
For example,INSERT INTO mysql_table (column1, column2, …) VALUES (value1, value2, …);
- Get Cursor Object from Connection
Next, use a
connection.cursor()
method to create a cursor object. This method creates a newMySQLCursor
object. - Execute the insert query using execute() method
Execute the insert query using the
cursor.execute()
method. This method executes the operation stored in the Insert query. - Commit your changes
After the successful execution of a query make changes persistent into a database using the
commit()
of a connection class. - Get the number of rows affected
After a successful insert operation, use a
cursor.rowcount
method to get the number of rows affected. The count depends on how many rows you are Inserting. - Verify result using the SQL SELECT query
Execute a MySQL select query from Python to see the new changes.
- Close the cursor object and database connection object
use
cursor.clsoe()
andconnection.clsoe()
method to close open connections after your work completes.

Let’ s see the program now
import mysql.connector
try:
connection = mysql.connector.connect(host='localhost',
database='electronics',
user='pynative',
password='pynative@#29')
mySql_insert_query = """INSERT INTO Laptop (Id, Name, Price, Purchase_date)
VALUES
(15, 'Lenovo ThinkPad P71', 6459, '2019-08-14') """
cursor = connection.cursor()
cursor.execute(mySql_insert_query)
connection.commit()
print(cursor.rowcount, "Record inserted successfully into Laptop table")
cursor.close()
except mysql.connector.Error as error:
print("Failed to insert record into Laptop table {}".format(error))
finally:
if connection.is_connected():
connection.close()
print("MySQL connection is closed")
Output
Record inserted successfully into Laptop table MySQL connection is closed

Use Python Variables in a MySQL Insert Query
Sometimes you need to insert a Python variable value into a table’s column. For example, in the user signup form user enter his/her details. You can take those values in Python variables and insert them into a table.
- We can insert Python variables into the table using the prepared statement and parameterized query.
- Using a parameterized query, we can pass Python variables as a query parameter in which placeholders (%s) used for parameters.
Example
import mysql.connector
def insert_varibles_into_table(id, name, price, purchase_date):
try:
connection = mysql.connector.connect(host='localhost',
database='Electronics',
user='pynative',
password='pynative@#29')
cursor = connection.cursor()
mySql_insert_query = """INSERT INTO Laptop (Id, Name, Price, Purchase_date)
VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s) """
record = (id, name, price, purchase_date)
cursor.execute(mySql_insert_query, record)
connection.commit()
print("Record inserted successfully into Laptop table")
except mysql.connector.Error as error:
print("Failed to insert into MySQL table {}".format(error))
finally:
if connection.is_connected():
cursor.close()
connection.close()
print("MySQL connection is closed")
insert_varibles_into_table(2, 'Area 51M', 6999, '2019-04-14')
insert_varibles_into_table(3, 'MacBook Pro', 2499, '2019-06-20')
Output:
Record inserted successfully into Laptop table MySQL connection is closed Record inserted successfully into Laptop table MySQL connection is closed

Refer to fetch rows from MySQL table in Python to check the data you inserted.
Insert multiple rows into MySQL table using the cursor’s executemany()
In the previous example, we have used execute()
method of cursor
object to insert a single record.
What if you want to insert multiple rows into a table in a single insert query from the Python application. Use the cursor’s executemany()
function to insert multiple records into a table.
Syntax of the executemany()
method.
cursor.executemany(operation, seq_of_params)
This method executes Insert operation
against all parameter sequences in the sequence seq_of_params
argument.
You need to include lists of tuples in the seq_of_params
argument along with the insert query.
Each tuple inside the list contains a single row that you want to insert. So you can add as many rows in the list and pass a list to a cursor.executemany()
function along with the insert query.
Note: Each tuple is enclosed within parentheses and separated by commas. For example, to insert multiple rows in a laptop table, we can use the following SQL Query:
INSERT INTO Laptop (Id, Name, Price, Purchase_date) VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s)
And in seq_of_params
we are passing the below List.
records_to_insert = [(4, 'HP Pavilion Power', 1999, '2019-01-11'),
(5, 'MSI WS75 9TL-496', 5799, '2019-02-27'),
(6, 'Microsoft Surface', 2330, '2019-07-23')]
Example to INSERT multiple rows into a MySQL table
import mysql.connector
try:
connection = mysql.connector.connect(host='localhost',
database='Electronics',
user='pynative',
password='pynative@#29')
mySql_insert_query = """INSERT INTO Laptop (Id, Name, Price, Purchase_date)
VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s) """
records_to_insert = [(4, 'HP Pavilion Power', 1999, '2019-01-11'),
(5, 'MSI WS75 9TL-496', 5799, '2019-02-27'),
(6, 'Microsoft Surface', 2330, '2019-07-23')]
cursor = connection.cursor()
cursor.executemany(mySql_insert_query, records_to_insert)
connection.commit()
print(cursor.rowcount, "Record inserted successfully into Laptop table")
except mysql.connector.Error as error:
print("Failed to insert record into MySQL table {}".format(error))
finally:
if connection.is_connected():
cursor.close()
connection.close()
print("MySQL connection is closed")
Output:
3 Record inserted successfully into Laptop table MySQL connection is closed

Refer to fetch data from the MySQL table to verify your result.
Note:
- Using
cursor.executemany(sql_insert_query, records_to_insert)
we are inserting multiple rows (from a List) into the table. - Using the
cursor.rowcount
we can find the number of records inserted.
Insert timestamp and DateTime into a MySQL table using Python
For example, you have a date column in a MySQL table. Let’s see how to prepare an insert query to add DateTime into a table from Python
from datetime import datetime
import mysql.connector
try:
connection = mysql.connector.connect(host='localhost',
database='Electronics',
user='pynative',
password='pynative@#29')
mySql_insert_query = """INSERT INTO Laptop (Id, Name, Price, Purchase_date)
VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s) """
cursor = connection.cursor()
current_Date = datetime.now()
# convert date in the format you want
formatted_date = current_Date.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
insert_tuple = (7, 'Acer Predator Triton', 2435, current_Date)
result = cursor.execute(mySql_insert_query, insert_tuple)
connection.commit()
print("Date Record inserted successfully")
except mysql.connector.Error as error:
connection.rollback()
print("Failed to insert into MySQL table {}".format(error))
finally:
if connection.is_connected():
cursor.close()
connection.close()
print("MySQL connection is closed")
You can get output like this after the execution of the above code.
Date Record inserted successfully MySQL connection is closed
Next Steps:
To practice what you learned in this article, Please solve a Python Database Exercise project to Practice and master the Python Database operations.