SQL COPY MySQL TABLE with structure and records

Copy structure with data to a new table with unique constraints auto increment using IF EXISTS

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.

Read how INSERT ... SELECT with ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE is used to export data to an existing table

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 student2 using the structure of the table student and will copy all the records from table student to our new table student2.

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'

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 Specific Columns only

Three columns id, name and marks is copied to new table student2.

CREATE TABLE student2  SELECT id,name, mark FROM student

Copy table structure only

WE can copy only structure and create a new table like this. This will also copy all constraints including autoincrement column.

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

Using SHOW CREATE TABLE

We can use query to generate sql dump for creation of a table. The output of above query can be used to create another table. Here is the query.

SHOW CREATE TABLE student

Script using PHP PDO

Here is a script using php pdo to generate CREATE TABLE query. We assumed that you already have database connection string inside config.php file.

<?Php
require "config.php"; // Database connection string
$table_name='student';
$q = $dbo->prepare("SHOW CREATE TABLE $table_name ");
$q->execute();
$table = $q->fetchAll();

print_r($table);
echo '<br><br>';
echo $table[0]['Create Table'];
?>

The output is here

Array ( [0] => Array ( [Table] => student [0] => student [Create Table] => CREATE TABLE `student` ( `id` int(2) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `name` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `class` varchar(10) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `mark` int(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `sex` varchar(6) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'male', UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=36 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 [1] => CREATE TABLE `student` ( `id` int(2) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `name` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `class` varchar(10) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `mark` int(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `sex` varchar(6) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'male', UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=36 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 ) ) 



CREATE TABLE `student` ( `id` int(2) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `name` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `class` varchar(10) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `mark` int(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `sex` varchar(6) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'male', UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=36 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8

Export data to existing table
SQL References How to delete Records in different tables

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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

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.

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.

Willy	06-08-2009
Will this work in ACCESS 2007?

Fadi	10-12-2009
Greate work thanks. It really helped me

manoj kumar bardhan	07-04-2010
Its very help full..

Scot King	10-06-2010
How do I copy data from table into tablebackup that is external to the current database?

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

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?

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;

SQL COPY TABLE Command ( CREATE TABLE ... )