How to use a SQL for loop to insert rows into database?

Question

I'm using Postgres, and I have a large number of rows that need to be inserted into the database, that differ only in terms of an integer that is incremented. Forgive what may be a silly question, but I'm not much of a database guru. Is it possible to directly enter a SQL query that will use a loop to programatically insert the rows?

Example in pseudo-code of what I'm trying to do:

for i in 1..10000000 LOOP   INSERT INTO articles VALUES(i) end loop; 

Answer 1

Hopefully I've understood what you need (tested on 8.2):

INSERT INTO articles (id, name) SELECT x.id, 'article #' || x.id   FROM generate_series(1,10000000) AS x(id); 

Answer 2

In SQL Server you can do:

DECLARE @i int SET @i = 1  WHILE @i<1000000     BEGIN         INSERT INTO articles         VALUES @i         SET @i=@i+1     END