MySQL Insert Into Select

Sometimes you may need to insert many values from one table into another table in MySQL. It can be tedious to manually enter these values in your INSERT sql statement. Here’s how to easily use SELECT statement to insert values into table with MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT query. You can use it to quickly populate MySQL tables.

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MySQL Insert Into Select

Here are the steps to insert values in MySQL tables using INSERT INTO SELECT statement. Let’s say you have the following table new_orders(id, order_date, amount)

mysql> create table new_orders(id int, order_date date, amount int);

Here’s the syntax for MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT statement.

INSERT INTO table_name(column_list)
SELECT 
   select_list 
FROM 
   another_table
WHERE
   condition;

In the above query, we use a SELECT statement, instead of VALUES clause. It is very useful to quickly copy one or more rows from another table, or even summary data from another table.

Bonus Read : MySQL Select Top N Rows

Let us look at a few examples for MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT.

MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT MULTIPLE ROWS

Here’s the SQL query to insert multiple rows into a table using INSERT INTO SELECT statement.

mysql> insert into new_orders
       select id, order_date, item_price
       from orders;

mysql> select * from new_orders;
+------+------------+--------+
| id   | order_date | amount |
+------+------------+--------+
|    1 | 2020-07-01 |    150 |
|    2 | 2020-07-01 |    235 |
+------+------------+--------+

You can omit the column names after INSERT clause if the column names in SELECT statement are identical to those in your table.

Bonus Read : MySQL Remove Duplicate Records

MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT FROM SAME TABLE

Here’s the SQL query to insert rows from same table using INSERT INTO SELECT statement.

mysql> insert into new_orders
       select *
       from new_orders;

mysql> select * from new_orders;
+------+------------+--------+
| id   | order_date | amount |
+------+------------+--------+
|    1 | 2020-07-01 |    150 |
|    2 | 2020-07-01 |    235 |
|    1 | 2020-07-01 |    150 |
|    2 | 2020-07-01 |    235 |
+------+------------+--------+

In the above query, we use MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT for all columns in a table.

Bonus Read : How to Execute Stored Procedure

MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT from Another Database

Here’s the SQL query to insert rows from another database dashboard. The only difference is to prepend the database name to your table name in SELECT query.

mysql> insert into users (user_id,date_joined)
select id,date_joined
from dashboard.auth_user;

In the above query, we have used dashboard.auth_user instead of just auth_user to specify that this table is in a different database.

Bonus Read : MySQL Get Duplicate Records

MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT on duplicate update

If you insert duplicate primary key or index values in a table, MySQL will throw an error. In INSERT INTO SELECT statement, you can also instruct MySQL to update specific columns in case of duplicate values, using ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE clause. Here’s an example of MySQL INSERT INTO SELECT on duplicate update.

Let’s say you have the following table x_orders(id, amount)

mysql> create table x_orders(id int auto_increment primary key, amount int);

Let’s say you have new_orders table which has duplicate values for id column.

mysql> select * from new_orders;
+------+------------+--------+
| id   | order_date | amount |
+------+------------+--------+
|    1 | 2020-07-01 |    150 |
|    2 | 2020-07-01 |    235 |
|    1 | 2020-07-01 |    150 |
|    2 | 2020-07-01 |    235 |
+------+------------+--------+

Let’s say you try to insert values from new_orders table into x_orders. You will get an error as shown.

mysql> insert into x_orders(id,amount)
       select id, amount
       from new_orders;
ERROR 1062 (23000): Duplicate entry '1' for key 'PRIMARY'

Here’s the SQL to use ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE clause.

mysql> insert into x_orders(id,amount)
       select id, amount
       from new_orders
       on duplicate key update id = RAND() * 100;

mysql> select * from x_orders;
+----+--------+
| id | amount |
+----+--------+
| 27 |    235 |
| 48 |    150 |
| 58 |    235 |
| 62 |    150 |
+----+--------+

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