SELECT INTO
SELECT INTO — define a new table from the results of a query
Synopsis
[ WITH [ RECURSIVE ] with_query [, ...] ]
SELECT [ ALL | DISTINCT [ ON ( expression [, ...] ) ] ]
* | expression [ [ AS ] output_name ] [, ...]
INTO [ TEMPORARY | TEMP | UNLOGGED ] [ TABLE ] new_table
[ FROM from_item [, ...] ]
[ WHERE condition ]
[ GROUP BY expression [, ...] ]
[ HAVING condition ]
[ WINDOW window_name AS ( window_definition ) [, ...] ]
[ { UNION | INTERSECT | EXCEPT } [ ALL | DISTINCT ] select ]
[ ORDER BY expression [ ASC | DESC | USING operator ] [ NULLS { FIRST | LAST } ] [, ...] ]
[ LIMIT { count | ALL } ]
[ OFFSET start [ ROW | ROWS ] ]
[ FETCH { FIRST | NEXT } [ count ] { ROW | ROWS } ONLY ]
[ FOR { UPDATE | SHARE } [ OF table_name [, ...] ] [ NOWAIT ] [...] ]
Description
SELECT INTO
creates a new table and fills it with data computed by a query. The data is not returned to the client, as it is with a normal SELECT
. The new table's columns have the names and data types associated with the output columns of the SELECT
.
Parameters
TEMPORARY
orTEMP
If specified, the table is created as a temporary table. Refer to CREATE TABLE for details.
UNLOGGED
If specified, the table is created as an unlogged table. Refer to CREATE TABLE for details.
new_table
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to be created.
All other parameters are described in detail under SELECT.
Notes
CREATE TABLE AS is functionally similar to SELECT INTO
. CREATE TABLE AS
is the recommended syntax, since this form of SELECT INTO
is not available in ECPG or PL/pgSQL, because they interpret the INTO
clause differently. Furthermore, CREATE TABLE AS
offers a superset of the functionality provided by SELECT INTO
.
Examples
Create a new table films_recent
consisting of only recent entries from the table films
:
SELECT * INTO films_recent FROM films WHERE date_prod >= '2002-01-01';
Compatibility
The SQL standard uses SELECT INTO
to represent selecting values into scalar variables of a host program, rather than creating a new table. This indeed is the usage found in ECPG and PL/pgSQL . The ProtonBase usage of SELECT INTO
to represent table creation is historical. Some other SQL implementations also use SELECT INTO
in this way (but most SQL implementations support CREATE TABLE AS
instead). Apart from such compatibility considerations, it is best to use CREATE TABLE AS
for this purpose in new code.