Populating the Customer Database

You are tasked with building a system to manage customer data. A crucial part of this is being able to add new customer records to a database. This challenge will test your understanding of how to insert data into a SQL table using the INSERT INTO statement.

Problem Description

Your goal is to write a SQL query (or pseudocode representing a SQL query) that inserts a new customer record into an existing Customers table. This table stores essential information about each customer. You will be provided with the details of the new customer to be added.

Key Requirements:

• You must use the INSERT INTO statement to add the new record.
• The new record must adhere to the schema of the Customers table.
• The provided customer details should be correctly mapped to the corresponding columns.

Expected Behavior: A successful execution of your query will result in a new row being added to the Customers table with the provided information.

Edge Cases:

• Consider what happens if certain fields are optional and can be NULL.
• Be mindful of data types for each column.

Examples

Example 1: Input: New customer details:

• FirstName: 'Alice'
• LastName: 'Smith'
• Email: 'alice.smith@example.com'
• PhoneNumber: '123-456-7890'
• CustomerID: 101

Output: A new row inserted into the Customers table with the following values:

Explanation: The INSERT INTO statement will specify the Customers table and provide the values for CustomerID, FirstName, LastName, Email, and PhoneNumber in the correct order or by column name.

Example 2: Input: New customer details:

• FirstName: 'Bob'
• LastName: 'Johnson'
• Email: 'bob.j@example.com'
• PhoneNumber: NULL (optional field, not provided)
• CustomerID: 102

Output: A new row inserted into the Customers table with the following values:

Explanation: When a column is optional and no value is provided, it should be set to NULL.

Constraints

• The Customers table has the following columns:
  • CustomerID (INTEGER, PRIMARY KEY)
  • FirstName (VARCHAR(50), NOT NULL)
  • LastName (VARCHAR(50), NOT NULL)
  • Email (VARCHAR(100), UNIQUE)
  • PhoneNumber (VARCHAR(20), NULLABLE)
• Customer IDs will be unique positive integers.
• First and Last names will be non-empty strings.
• Email addresses will be valid email formats.

Notes

• You can choose to specify column names in your INSERT INTO statement or rely on the order of values if you are certain of the column order in the Customers table. Specifying column names is generally considered a best practice for clarity and robustness.
• Think about how to handle the NULLABLE PhoneNumber field.
• The PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE constraints are important for data integrity but are managed by the database itself; your task is to correctly insert the data.