How do I skip a column entry on INSERT when a value is blank in SQL?

Question

I'm inserting lots of rows into a database and some of the columns are blank for some of the rows.

How can I insert without assigning a dummy value to these blank fields?

       1 INSERT Leads VALUES('name', 'cityName', 5, 'anotherValue')
       2 INSERT Leads VALUES('name', 'cityName',  , 'anotherValue')
       3 INSERT Leads VALUES('name', 'cityName', 2, 'anotherValue')
       4 INSERT Leads VALUES('name', 'cityName', 9, 'anotherValue')

My problem lies in row 2 where there is a blank value in between city name and another value. Ideally, I'd like the value to remain null.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You should always explicitly specify which columns you're inserting to - then you can leave out those you don't want:

INSERT INTO dbo.Leads(Col1, Col2, Col4) VALUES('name', 'cityName', 'anotherValue')

(leaving out Col3 here in this example)