SQL - Insert multiple records from select - sql-server

Question

I have been searching all day but could not find answer to this:
I have a table on SQL Server:
dbo.Program
with fields:
Program.id...PK autoincrement
Program.user...varchar
Program.program...varchar
Program.installed...boolean
Program.department...varchar
Program.wheninstalled...date
Now, I want to insert a new record for every distinct user and copy the department from his latest(Program.wheninstalled) record with other values the same for every user:
Program.user...every unique user
Program.program...MyMostAwesomeProgram
Program.installed...false
Program.department...department of the record with the latest program.wheninstalled field of all the records of the unique user in program.user
Program.wheninstalled...null
I know how to do it in an ugly way:
select the latest records for every user and their department in that record
extract values from 1) and make it into insert into
(field1, field2...fieldX) values
(1records_value1, 1records_value2...1records_valueX),
(2records_value1, 2records_value2...2records_valueX),
...
(Nrecords_value1, Nrecords_value2...Nrecords_valueX)
but I would like to know how to do it in a better way. Oh I cannot use some proper HR databse to make my life easier so this is what I got to work with now.

Answer 1

I'm a postgres guy, but something akin to the below should work:
insert into Program (user, program, installed, department, wheninstalled)
select user,
'MyMostAwesomeProgram',
false,
(select department from someTable where u.user = ...),
null
from users as u;
from https://stackoverflow.com/a/23905173/3430807

Answer 2

you said you know how to do the select
insert into Program (user, program, installed, department, wheninstalled)
select user, 'MyMostAwesomeProgram', 'false' , department, null
from ...

Answer 3

This should do it:
insert into Program (user, program, installed, department, whenInstalled)
select user, program, installed, department, whenInstalled
from
(
select User
, 'MyMostAwesomeProgram' program
, 0 installed
, department
, null whenInstalled
, row_number() over (partition by user order by whenInstalled desc, id desc) r
from Program
) p
where p.r = 1
The interesting bit is the row_number() over (partition by user order by whenInstalled desc, id desc) r.
This says to return a column, r, which holds values 1..n for each user, counting up according to the order by clause (i.e. starting with the most recent whenInstalled and working backwards).
I also included the id field in the order by clause in case there were two installs for the same user on the same date; in such a case the most recently added (the one with the higher id is used first).
We then put this in a subquery, and select only the first record; thus we have 1 record per user, and it's the most recent.
The only values we use from this record are the user and department fields; all else is defined per your defaults.

Answer 4

So I am gonna answer this for some other people who might google this:
To get a records from a table to another table you need to use Select into statement
I like using With XXX as ( some select) to specify, say, "virtual" table with which you can work during the query
As JohnLBevan meantioned a very useful function Row_number, over, partition by and what i missed is a rank
So once you read on these you should be able to understand how to do what I wanted to do.