aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/doc/src/sgml/ref/select_into.sgml
blob: 131bb6e1a2f7eed7c75f500345e63e294cf00f41 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
<!--
$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/select_into.sgml,v 1.22 2003/05/04 02:23:16 petere Exp $
PostgreSQL documentation
-->

<refentry id="SQL-SELECTINTO">
 <refmeta>
  <refentrytitle id="SQL-SELECTINTO-TITLE">SELECT INTO</refentrytitle>
  <refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
 </refmeta>

 <refnamediv>
  <refname>SELECT INTO</refname>
  <refpurpose>create a new table from the results of a query</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>

 <refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
SELECT [ ALL | DISTINCT [ ON ( <replaceable class="PARAMETER">expression</replaceable> [, ...] ) ] ]
    * | <replaceable class="PARAMETER">expression</replaceable> [ AS <replaceable class="PARAMETER">output_name</replaceable> ] [, ...]
    INTO [ TEMPORARY | TEMP ] [ TABLE ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">new_table</replaceable>
    [ FROM <replaceable class="PARAMETER">from_item</replaceable> [, ...] ]
    [ WHERE <replaceable class="PARAMETER">condition</replaceable> ]
    [ GROUP BY <replaceable class="PARAMETER">expression</replaceable> [, ...] ]
    [ HAVING <replaceable class="PARAMETER">condition</replaceable> [, ...] ]
    [ { UNION | INTERSECT | EXCEPT } [ ALL ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">select</replaceable> ]
    [ ORDER BY <replaceable class="PARAMETER">expression</replaceable> [ ASC | DESC | USING <replaceable class="PARAMETER">operator</replaceable> ] [, ...] ]
    [ LIMIT { <replaceable class="PARAMETER">count</replaceable> | ALL } ]
    [ OFFSET <replaceable class="PARAMETER">start</replaceable> ]
    [ FOR UPDATE [ OF <replaceable class="PARAMETER">tablename</replaceable> [, ...] ] ]
</synopsis>
 </refsynopsisdiv>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Description</title>

  <para>
   <command>SELECT INTO</command> 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 <command>SELECT</command>.  The new
   table's columns have the names and data types associated with the
   output columns of the <command>SELECT</command>.
  </para>
 </refsect1>
  
 <refsect1>
  <title>Parameters</title>

  <variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
   <term><literal>TEMPORARY</literal> or <literal>TEMP</literal></term>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     If specified, the table is created as a temporary table.  Refer
     to <xref linkend="sql-createtable"
     endterm="sql-createtable-title"> for details.
    </para>
   </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

   <varlistentry>
    <term><replaceable class="PARAMETER">new_table</replaceable></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to be created.
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>

  <para>
   All other parameters are described in detail under <xref
   linkend="sql-select" endterm="sql-select-title">.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Diagnostics</title>

  <para>
   Refer to
   <xref linkend="sql-createtable" endterm="sql-createtable-title">
   and
   <xref linkend="sql-select" endterm="sql-select-title">
   for a summary of possible output messages.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Notes</title>

  <para>
   <xref linkend="sql-createtableas" endterm="sql-createtableas-title">
   is functionally equivalent to <command>SELECT INTO</command>.
   <command>CREATE TABLE AS</command> is the recommended syntax, since
   this form of <command>SELECT INTO</command> is not available in
   <application>ECPG</application> or
   <application>PL/pgSQL</application>, because they interpret the
   <literal>INTO</literal> clause differently.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Compatibility</title>

  <para>
   The SQL standard uses <command>SELECT ... INTO</command> to
   represent selecting values into scalar variables of a host program,
   rather than creating a new table.  This indeed is the usage found
   in <application>ECPG</application> (see <xref linkend="ecpg">) and
   <application>PL/pgSQL</application> (see <xref linkend="plpgsql">).
   The <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> usage of <command>SELECT
   INTO</command> to represent table creation is historical.  It's
   best to use <command>CREATE TABLE AS</command> for this purpose in
   new code.  (<command>CREATE TABLE AS</command> isn't standard
   either, but it's less likely to cause confusion.)
  </para>
 </refsect1>
</refentry>

<!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
Local variables:
mode: sgml
sgml-omittag:nil
sgml-shorttag:t
sgml-minimize-attributes:nil
sgml-always-quote-attributes:t
sgml-indent-step:1
sgml-indent-data:t
sgml-parent-document:nil
sgml-default-dtd-file:"../reference.ced"
sgml-exposed-tags:nil
sgml-local-catalogs:"/usr/lib/sgml/catalog"
sgml-local-ecat-files:nil
End:
-->