Im using pivot runtime and after running the same i want to store the result set in a table. so i need to create a table dynamically based on the result set. Any ideas?
You can use a SELECT ... INTO statement.
Example:
SELECT * INTO NewTable FROM #TempTableResult
This statement will create a new table called NewTable automatically based on the structure of #TempTableResult with all the data you get from the SELECT.
The columns of the NewTable will be the same as the output of the SELECT statement, with the same data types.
EDIT: Note that the SELECT ... INTO statement fails if the destination table already exists, so remember to drop it before running the query, or you may use a dynamically generated table name instead.
Related
I have a table of all employees (employees_all) and then created a new table (employees_new) with the same structure that I would like to append to the original table to include new employees.
I was looking for the right command to use and found that INSERT lets me add data as in the following example:
create table t1 (v varchar);
insert into t1 (v) values
('three'),
('four');
But how do I append data coming from another table and without specifying the fields (both tables have the same structure and hundreds of columns)?
With additional research, I found this specific way to insert data from another table:
insert into employees_all
select * from employees_new;
This script lets you append all rows from a table into another one without specifying the fields.
Hope it helps!
Your insert with a select statement is the most simple answer, but just for fun, here's some extra options that provide some different flexibility.
You can generate the desired results in a select query using
SELECT * FROM employees_all
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM employees_new;
This allows you to have a few more options with how you use this data downstream.
--use a view to preview the results without impacting the table
CREATE VIEW employees_all_preview
AS
SELECT * FROM employees_all
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM employees_new;
--recreate the table using a sort,
-- generally not super common, but could help with clustering in some cases when the table
-- is very large and isn't updated very frequently.
INSERT OVERWRITE INTO employees_all
SELECT * FROM (
SELECT * FROM employees_all
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM employees_new
) e ORDER BY name;
Lastly, you can also do a merge to give you some extra options. In this example, if your new table might have records that already match an existing record then instead of inserting them and creating duplicates, you can run an update for those records
MERGE INTO employees_all a
USING employees_new n ON a.employee_id = n.employee_id
WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET attrib1 = n.attrib1, attrib2 = n.attrib2
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT (employee_id, name, attrib1, attrib2)
VALUES (n.employee_id, n.name, n.attrib1, n.attrib2)
In MySQL you can do SELECT CREATE TABLE .... and it will return the CREATE statement that was used to create this table. I need to do the same in SQL Server.
Is there any similar functionality in SQL Server? I have a table name test_table.
I need to run a SELECT statement that would return the CREATE TABLE string that was used to create this table. I tried this but it didn't work. How can I achieve this result in SQL Server?
You could try SELECT INTO and specify the name of a temporary table (prefixed with #). It also works with physical tables (although I've not found a use for this). Something like this
select '123' as colName into #newTable;
select * from #newTable;
colName
123
I'm trying to move a table in sql server to another table without the use of create. Is there any way to accomplish this.
I'm trying to use the select * from table
You can use SELECT . . INTO :
SELECT s.*
INTO <destination>
FROM <source> s;
This will create <DESTINATION> table with auto fill data.
Note : This will copy the table definition only includes (column/datatype).
Use simple insert query
insert into destination(columns)
select *
from source
where<condition>;
And delete existing record if you want
delete from source
where <condition>
commit;
The SELECT INTO statement creates a new table and inserts rows from the query into it.
Please refer this for more information.
SELECT
select_list
INTO
destination
FROM
source
[WHERE condition]
I have a stored procedure that returns a dataset from a dynamic pivot query (meaning the pivot columns aren't know until run-time because they are driven by data).
The first column in this dataset is a product id. I want to join that product id with another product table that has all sorts of other columns that were created at design time.
So, I have a normal table with a product id column and I have a "dynamic" dataset that also has a product id column that I get from calling a stored procedure. How can I inner join those 2?
Dynamic SQL is very powerfull, but has some severe draw backs. One of them is exactly this: You cannot use its result in ad-hoc-SQL.
The only way to get the result of a SP into a table is, to create a table with a fitting schema and use the INSERT INTO NewTbl EXEC... syntax...
But there are other possibilities:
1) Use SELECT ... INTO ... FROM
Within your SP, when the dynamic SQL is executed, you could add INTO NewTbl to your select:
SELECT Col1, Col2, [...] INTO NewTbl FROM ...
This will create a table with the fitting schema automatically.
You might even hand in the name of the new table as a paramter - as it is dynamic SQL, but in this case it will be more difficult to handle the join outside (must be dynamic again).
If you need your SP to return the result, you just add SELECT * FROM NewTbl. This will return the same resultset as before.
Outside your SP you can join this table as any normal table...
BUT, there is a big BUT - ups - this sounds nasty somehow - This will fail, if the tabel exists...
So you have to drop it first, which can lead into deep troubles, if this is a multi-user application with possible concurrencies.
If not: Use IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME='NewTbl') DROP TABLE NewTbl;
If yes: Create the table with a name you pass in as parameter and do you external query dynamically with this name.
After this you can re-create this table using the SELECT ... INTO syntax...
2) Use XML
One advantage of XML is the fact, that any structure and any amount of data can be stuffed into one single column.
Let your SP return a table with one single XML column. You can - as you know the schema now - create a table and use INSERT INTO XmlTable EXEC ....
Knowing, that there will be a ProductID-element you can extract this value and create a 2-column-derived-table with the ID and the depending XML. This is easy to join.
Using wildcards in XQuery makes it possible to query XML data without knowing all the details...
3) This was my favourite: Don't use dynamic queries...
this is my first question here. I am very new into SQL Server and T-SQL.
I would like to create a table, with a column that is using data from another column. I thought I could use select function, but it is not allowed.
How to do it?
It is very simple to create view in this way, but I would like to have a table not view.
It should look like
Column A, ColumnB,
Column C=select count(*) from [another table] where....
Could you please advise?
SELECT [COLUMN A],[COLUMN B],COUNT(*) as [COLUMN C]
INTO [destination table] FROM [another table] where...
You should use an alias
You create a table using the create table syntax because you will need to define the field names and sizes. Look the syntax up in Books Online. Do not ever use SELECT INTO unless you are creating a staging table for one-time use or a temp table. It is not a good choice for creating a new table. Plus, you don't say where any of the other columns come from except the column one, so it is may be impossible to properly set up the correct field sizes from the initial insert. Further, well frankly you should take the time to think about what columns you need and what data types they should be, it is irresponsible to avoid doing this for a table that will be permanently used.
To populate you use the Insert statement with a select instead of the values statement. If only column c come from another table, then it might be something like":
Insert table1 (colA, Colb, colC)
select 'test', 10, count(*)
from tableb
where ...
If you have to get the data from multiple tables, then you may need a join.
If you need to maintain the computed column as the values change in TableB, then you may need to write triggers on TableB or better (easier to develop and maintain and less likely to be buggy or create a data integrity problem) use a view for this instead of a separate table.