docs/sql-ref-syntax-dml-insert-overwrite-directory.md

---
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title: INSERT OVERWRITE DIRECTORY
displayTitle: INSERT OVERWRITE DIRECTORY
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### Description

The `INSERT OVERWRITE DIRECTORY` statement overwrites the existing data in the directory with the new values using a given Spark file format. The inserted rows can be specified by value expressions or result from a query.

### Syntax

```sql
INSERT OVERWRITE [ LOCAL ] DIRECTORY [ directory_path ]
    USING file_format [ OPTIONS ( key = val [ , ... ] ) ]
    { VALUES ( { value | NULL } [ , ... ] ) [ , ( ... ) ] | query }
```

### Parameters

* **directory_path**

    Specifies the destination directory. It can also be specified in `OPTIONS` using `path`.
    The `LOCAL` keyword is used to specify that the directory is on the local file system.

* **file_format**

    Specifies the file format to use for the insert. Valid options are `TEXT`, `CSV`, `JSON`, `JDBC`, `PARQUET`, `ORC`, `HIVE`, `LIBSVM`, or a fully qualified class name of a custom implementation of `org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.FileFormat`.

* **OPTIONS ( key = val [ , ... ] )**

    Specifies one or more options for the writing of the file format.

* **VALUES ( { value `|` NULL } [ , ... ] ) [ , ( ... ) ]**

    Specifies the values to be inserted. Either an explicitly specified value or a NULL can be inserted.
    A comma must be used to separate each value in the clause. More than one set of values can be specified to insert multiple rows.

* **query**

    A query that produces the rows to be inserted. It can be in one of following formats:
    * a `SELECT` statement
    * a `TABLE` statement
    * a `FROM` statement

### Examples

```sql
INSERT OVERWRITE DIRECTORY '/tmp/destination'
    USING parquet
    OPTIONS (col1 1, col2 2, col3 'test')
    SELECT * FROM test_table;

INSERT OVERWRITE DIRECTORY
    USING parquet
    OPTIONS ('path' '/tmp/destination', col1 1, col2 2, col3 'test')
    SELECT * FROM test_table;
```

### Related Statements

* [INSERT INTO statement](sql-ref-syntax-dml-insert-into.html)
* [INSERT OVERWRITE statement](sql-ref-syntax-dml-insert-overwrite-table.html)
* [INSERT OVERWRITE DIRECTORY with Hive format statement](sql-ref-syntax-dml-insert-overwrite-directory-hive.html)