Postgres sql insert query syntax error from phpPgAdmin

I've installed phpPgAdmin to try to reproduce your error. I got it right away when tried to create a test table:

So looks like phpPgAdmin wraping your query into select count(*) as total from (...). I've found that it happens only when checkbox "Paginate results" on query page is set to on (obviously phpPgAdmin trying to count how many rows it will get and then show it page by page). Uncheck it and your query will work fine:

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Similar question - INSERT INTO PostgreSQL

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As @akshay mentioned in comments, you also could get similar error running the queries through the command line, see explained situation and answer here - PostgreSQL disable more output

The phpPgAdmin UI provides two links for running SQL - one in the main body of the page, and one in the menu bar at the top of the page.

The one in the main body of the page will throw the error you're seeing if you run a data definition statement like CREATE TABLE.

However, the one in the menu bar will run data definition queries with no problem.

In short:

screen

you could try this as well

INSERT INTO "user" ("username", "password_hash", "first_name", "last_name")VALUES( 'Foo',MD5('54321'),'Foo','Bar' );