What's blocking “Select top 1 * from TableName with (nolock)” from returning a result?

Question

I\'m currently running the following statement

select * into adhoc..san_savedi from dps_san..savedi_record

It\'s taking a painfully long time a

Answer 1

A few issues to consider here. Is dps_san..savedi_record a view? If so, it could just be taking a really long time to get your data. The other thing I can think of is that you're trying to create a temp table by using the select into syntax, which is a bad idea. select * into ... syntax will lock the tempdb for duration of the select.

If you are creating the table using that syntax, then there is a workaround. First, create the table by throwing where 1=0 at the end of your initial statement:

select * into ... from ... where 1=0

This will create the table first (which is quick) which allows you to insert into because the table exists now (without penalty of locking tempdb for duration of query).