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SQL INSERT INTO SELECT statement

With SQL, you can copy information from one table to another.

INSERT INTO SELECT statement to copy data from a table and then insert data into an existing table.


SQL INSERT INTO SELECT statement

INSERT INTO SELECT statement to copy data from a table and then insert data into an existing table. Target table any rows that already exist are not affected.

SQL INSERT INTO SELECT syntax

We can replicate all columns from a table into another existing table:

INSERT INTO table2
SELECT * FROM table1;

Or we can just copy the desired columns into another existing table:

INSERT INTO table2
(column_name(s))
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table1;


The demo database

In this tutorial, we will use w3big sample database.

The following is a selected "Websites" table data:

+----+--------------+---------------------------+-------+---------+
| id | name         | url                       | alexa | country |
+----+--------------+---------------------------+-------+---------+
| 1  | Google       | https://www.google.cm/    | 1     | USA     |
| 2  | 淘宝          | https://www.taobao.com/   | 13    | CN      |
| 3  | 本教程      | http://www.w3big.com/    | 4689  | CN      |
| 4  | 微博          | http://weibo.com/         | 20    | CN      |
| 5  | Facebook     | https://www.facebook.com/ | 3     | USA     |
| 7  | stackoverflow | http://stackoverflow.com/ |   0 | IND     |
+----+---------------+---------------------------+-------+---------+

Here is the "apps" APP data:

mysql> SELECT * FROM apps;
+----+------------+-------------------------+---------+
| id | app_name   | url                     | country |
+----+------------+-------------------------+---------+
|  1 | QQ APP     | http://im.qq.com/       | CN      |
|  2 | 微博 APP | http://weibo.com/       | CN      |
|  3 | 淘宝 APP | https://www.taobao.com/ | CN      |
+----+------------+-------------------------+---------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)


SQL INSERT INTO SELECT Examples

Copy data "apps" are inserted into the "Websites" in:

Examples

INSERT INTO Websites (name, country)
SELECT app_name, country FROM apps;

QQ only complex of APP to "Websites" in:

Examples

INSERT INTO Websites (name, country)
SELECT app_name, country FROM p
WHERE id=1;