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Creating Records

You can create a record like this:


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const record = await xata.db.Users.create({
  email: "keanu@example.com",
  name: "keanu@example.com"
});

The TypeScript SDK returns the created record. The response looks like this:


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{
  "email":"keanu@example.com"
  "id":"rec_cd8rqcoavc42pi67lgd0"
  "name":"keanu@example.com"
  "bio":NULL
  "address":NULL
}

In the above:

id is the ID of the record, which Xata generates automatically. The generated records are globally unique and sortable. This means that sorting by the IDs you sort by the insertion order.
xata.version is the version of the record. It is automatically incremented any time the record is updated and can be used for optimistic locking.

Creating a Record with a given ID

If you want to specify your own ID, you can do it like this:


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const record = await xata.db.Users.create("myid", {
  email: "keanu@example.com",
  name: "keanu@example.com"
});

In the REST API example, note the change from POST to PUT. The createOnly query parameter signals Xata to return an error in case a record with the given ID already exists.

Creating a Record with a Linked Field

In the schema that we chose, the Posts table has an author column of type link that links to the Users table. To insert a record with a linked field, use the ID of the target record in the link column. For example:


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const record = await xata.db.Posts.create({
    title: "Filming the Matrix",
    author: "rec_cd8rqcoavc42pi67lgd0"
});

Creating a Record with Object Columns

In the Xata data model, you can have nested columns similar to JSON. For example, the following insert request contains an address column with two keys:


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const record = await xata.db.Users.create({
  email: "carrie@example.com",
  name: "Carrie-Anne Moss",
  address: {
      street: "123 Main St",
      zipcode: 12345
  }
});

Creating Records in Bulk

If you have multiple records to insert, you can send them in a single request via the /bulk endpoint. For example:


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const users = await xata.db.Users.create([{
    email: "laurence@example.com",
    name: "Laurence Fishburne",
    team: "rec_cd8s4kbo8dsvsjilo1ug",
  }, {
    email: "hugo@example.com",
    name: "Hugo Weaving",
    team: "rec_cd8s4kbo8dsvsjilo1ug"
  }, {
    email: "joe@example.com",
    name: "Joe Pantoliano",
    team: "rec_cd8s4kbo8dsvsjilo1ug"
  }
]);

It is possible to provide IDs for each of the records. If records with the same IDs already exist, they will be updated.

Next Steps

Great! We can insert data into our databases. Let's now explore how we get data from a database. Alternatively, we can also look into updating data or deleting data. We've got guides for each of these operations.

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