T-SQL Insert into table without having to specify every column

Question

In our db there is a table that has a little over 80 columns. It has a primary key and Identity insert is turned on. I\'m looking for a way to insert into this table every colum

Answer 1

You can do this quite easily actually:

-- Select everything into temp table
Select * Into 
    #tmpBigTable
    From [YourBigTable]

-- Drop the Primary Key Column from the temp table  
Alter Table #tmpBigTable Drop Column [PrimaryKeyColumn]

-- Insert that into your other big table
Insert Into [YourOtherBigTable]
    Select * From #tmpBigTable

-- Drop the temp table you created
Drop Table #tmpBigTable

Provided you have Identity Insert On in "YourOtherBigTable" and columns are absolutely identical you will be okay.

Answer 2

No, that's not possible. You could be tempted to use

INSERT INTO MyLargeTable SELECT * FROM OtherTable

But that would not work, because your identity column would be included in the *.

You could use

SET IDENTITY_INSERT MyLargeTable ON
INSERT INTO MyLargeTable SELECT * FROM OtherTable
SET IDENTITY_INSERT MyLargeTable OFF

first you enable inserting identity values, than you copy the records, then you enable the identity column again.

But this won't work neither. SQL server won't accept the * in this case. You have to explicitly include the Id in the script, like :

SET IDENTITY_INSERT MyLargeTable ON
INSERT INTO MyLargeTable (Id, co1, col2, ...., col80) SELECT Id, co1, col2, ...., col80 FROM OtherTable
SET IDENTITY_INSERT MyLargeTable OFF

So we're back from where we started.

The easiest way is to right click the table in Management Studio, let it generate the INSERT and SELECT scripts, and edit them a little to let them work together.

Answer 3

Why not just create a VIEW of the original data, removing the unwanted fields? Then 'Select * into' your hearts desire.

• Localized control within a single view
• No need to modify SPROC
• Add/change/delete fields easy
• No need to query meta-data
• No temporary tables

Answer 4

Really, honestly it takes ten seconds or less to pull all of the columns over from the object browser and then delete the identity column from the list. It is a bad idea to use select * for anything but quick ad hoc query.

Answer 5

You could query Information_Schema to get a list of all the columns and programatically generate the column names for your query. If you're doing this all in t-sql it would be cumbersome, but it could be done. If you're using some other client language, like C# to do the operation, it would be a little less cumbersome.

Answer 6

CREATE TABLE Tests
(
    TestID int IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
    A int,
    B int,
    C int
)

INSERT INTO dbo.Tests
VALUES (1,2,3)

SELECT * FROM Tests

This works in SQL2012