postgreSQL: how to duplicate a row

This is the scheme of my table web_book:

     Column     |          Type          |                       Modifiers                       
----------------+------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------
 id             | integer                | not null default nextval('web_book_id_seq'::regclass)
 page_count     | integer                | not null
 year_published | integer                | not null
 file           | character varying(100) | not null
 image          | character varying(100) | not null
 display_on_hp  | boolean                | not null
 name           | character varying(128) | not null
 description    | text                   | not null
 name_cs        | character varying(128) | 
 name_en        | character varying(128) | 
 description_cs | text                   | 
 description_en | text                   |

The table contains one row with id=3. I want to duplicate the row but If I try this:

INSERT INTO web_book SELECT * FROM web_book WHERE id=3;

I get this:

ERROR:  duplicate key value violates unique constraint "web_book_pkey"
DETAIL:  Key (id)=(3) already exists

Solution 1:

You need to create a new ID for the newly inserted row:

INSERT INTO web_book( 
   id, page_count, year_published, file, image, 
   display_on_hp, name, description, name_cs, 
   name_en, description_cs, description_en
)
SELECT nextval('web_book_id_seq'), 
       page_count, 
       year_published, 
       file, 
       image, 
       display_on_hp, 
       name, 
       description, 
       name_cs, 
       name_en, 
       description_cs, 
       description_en 
FROM web_book WHERE id=3;

As mentioned by ClodoaldoNeto you can make things a bit easier by simply leaving out the ID column and let the default definition do its job:

INSERT INTO web_book( 
   page_count, year_published, file, image, 
   display_on_hp, name, description, name_cs, 
   name_en, description_cs, description_en
)
SELECT page_count, 
       year_published, 
       file, 
       image, 
       display_on_hp, 
       name, 
       description, 
       name_cs, 
       name_en, 
       description_cs, 
       description_en 
FROM web_book WHERE id=3;

In this case you don't need to know the sequence name (but it is a bit less obvious what's going on).

Solution 2:

Specify id column only if you specify its value (and it's not your case). You want to use next sequence web_book_id_seq value, so do not specify it in your INSERT query.

Your INSERT should looks like this:

INSERT INTO web_book (page_count, year_published, file, image, display_on_hp, name, description, name_cs, name_en, description_cs, description_en)
SELECT page_count, year_published, file, image, display_on_hp, name, description, name_cs, name_en, description_cs, description_en
FROM web_book
WHERE id = 3;