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SQL COPY TABLE Command

For backup and other requirements we often have to copy the data of a table or copy the total table structure with data. We can selectively copy the data of a MySQL table to a new table or copy the total data to a new table. We will learn here different techniques on how to do this.

We can copy a table structure and records to another new table. The CREATE TABLE command will create a table with same structure of the old table and add all the records. To export data to an existing table you can use insert command.

CREATE TABLE student2 SELECT * FROM student

This will create a new table class2 using the structure of the table class and will copy all the records from table class to our new table class2.

This became more useful when we add conditions to this by using SQL WHERE command. This way selectively we can transfer records to a new table. This is our table.

id	name	class	mark
1	John Deo	Four	75
2	Max Ruin	Three	85
3	Arnold	Three	55
4	Krish Star	Four	60
5	John Mike	Four	60
6	Alex John	Four	55

We will apply our sql command to this table to create a new table and we will copy records for which class = Four. So our new table will contain the records of class four only.

CREATE TABLE student2 SELECT * FROM student WHERE class='Four'

Related Tutorial
• Exporting data to table • SQL Inner Join • Number of Affected rows • SQL Rename table • PHP MySQL functions

With this command we will create a new table student2 of same structure of main table student and all the records of class = Four will be copied to the new table. The new table student2 will have these records

id	name	class	mark
1	John Deo	Four	75
4	Krish Star	Four	60
5	John Mike	Four	60
6	Alex John	Four	55

This way we can use any conditional requirements by using where clause to create or copy different tables.

Copy table structure only

WE can copy only structure and create a new table like this.

create table t1 like student

Here we will create a new table t1 by using structure of student table. ( No data is copied)

Create table if not exists

Note that all the above quires will return error if the table is already exist, so to prevent this error message we can add the command IF NOT EXISTS to the query.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS student5 SELECT * FROM student WHERE class='Four'

Here the table will be created only if the table is not there before.

What we will do if we want to delete the old table and create a new table ?

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS

Some time we may not be sure if the table exists or not so we can drop the table if exist by adding one more query before creating the table. Here it is

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `student5`;

The advantage of the above command over using a simple drop table command is here no error message saying unknown table is generated even if the table is not there.

Copy with extra features like auto_increment

To copy the extra features of the column like auto_increment , unique etc we have to use like this

CREATE TABLE student2 (id INT(3) auto_increment primary key) SELECT student.name,student.class, student.mark from student

Creating a new table by using data from one table

Copying data from one table to another table

Updating another table with data from main table

Update SQL commands

Inserting SUM, AVG data from one table column to other using group by command

Create table query with if exists sql with php script

dfgf	19-02-2009
This is a very useful information. Thank you very much.... Everywhere else i found info to do this in 2 steps, but this method saves a lot of work.
demonsmile	15-03-2009
wa bng clear discussion about sa copying of data in the table to table
Hiromitsu	05-06-2009
Thanks for this tutorial. It works great !!
siddhartha singh	10-06-2009
this is very clear cut way to explain the things,one can easily learn the points by just reading the txts
Rudy Warjri	09-07-2009
please giv me a more detailed explanation to calculate the marks from one table and then calculate the total sum in another table by using some php code
Willy	06-08-2009
Will this work in ACCESS 2007?
matthew	08-10-2009
It doesn't work very well. Particular fields of newly created table has to be altered if there were extra properties in the fields of the source.
Fadi	10-12-2009
Greate work thanks. It really helped me
Abid	18-12-2009
Thanks for this info.. but if what if i've just to copy only the structure.....??
Dave	22-02-2010
always double-check that the new table has the same indexes as the source table - some versions don't copy the indexes when you do a CREATE TABLE student2 SELECT * FROM student with or without the LIMIT 0 :)
seenu	02-03-2010
Thanks for providing the valuable information, this helps a lot to learn the concept's.
Vilart	08-03-2010
Thank so much for your best information. God bless you.
Anand	09-03-2010
Hi, this query will work... select * into A from B where A- new table name and B - old table name.. the table with the same column, data and etc,etc are created... this worked in SQL 2005
manoj kumar bardhan	07-04-2010
Its very help full..
JAISHI RAM	22-05-2010
I want to copy table1 into table2 with structure and data in the same database. I used the cammand CREATE TABLE student2 SELECT * FROM student on button click event and also on sql moblie query but can not make copy. So u r requested to pl. kindly solve my this problem with example. Thanking u.
Raaj	04-06-2010
i want to copy table structure only in SQL2005.. can you please help me?
Scot King	10-06-2010
How do I copy data from table into tablebackup that is external to the current database?
Satish	05-08-2010
Thanks for the info, anyone have tired to create a Multiple Tables with the Automatic Names given to New Table Created , Queried from a Master Table in same database Example: "mstr_Student_tbl". Here I want a Table generated as "tbl_stundentID" automatically where the structure is same as in a Model Table Model_Stundent_tbl If that is a SQL It will be like ..?? just 2 bit to start... CREATE TABLE mstr_Student_tbl.ID LIKE Model_Student_tbl Thanks in advance for help regards Satish
Pankaj Kumar GUpta	29-09-2010
i try to copy only structure and create a new table and use this Query "create table t1 like student" when i use this Query it not work any one give me suggestion
sam	08-11-2010
how to merge two tables in php mysql database? Same field name records not deleted.All records save in new table.
Adil	13-01-2011
@Raaj -- copy table structure only no data; CREATE TABLE Table_NAME SELECT * FROM Table_NAME_copy where 1 = 2;
el-ahmed mahmood	09-02-2011
i would like a SQL statement that define the structure and content of a table containing student profile
Narendra Kumar	16-06-2011
I would like to told you that how to copy the one table data into another. INSERT INTO Table1 (Column1, ..., ColumnN) SELECT Column1, ..., ColumnN FROM Table2
sunny	09-09-2011
With INSERT ... SELECT, you can quickly insert many rows into a table from one or many tables. For example: INSERT INTO tbl_temp2 (fld_id) SELECT tbl_temp1.fld_order_id FROM tbl_temp1 WHERE tbl_temp1.fld_order_id > 100;

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