Copy existing table with NULLABLE column [duplicate] - sql

Question

When I create a temp table using a select into in SQL Server, is there a way to specify that a column should be nullable? I have a multi-step process where I'm making a temp table by selecting a lot of columns (which is why I'm not doing a create table #tmp (...)). After I make that temp table, I'm updating some columns and some of those updates might null out a field.
I know I could do an alter table alter column statement to achieve what I want, but I'm curious about whether there's a way to specify this in the select itself. I know you can inline cast your columns to get the desired datatype, but I can't see how you specify nullability.

Answer 1

Nullability is inherited from the source column.
You can lose or gain nullability with an expression:
Example (constant literals appear to be problematic - need a good NOOP function which can return NULL):
CREATE TABLE SO5465245_IN
(
a INT NOT NULL
,b INT NULL
) ;
GO
SELECT COALESCE(a, NULL) AS a
,ISNULL(b, 0) AS b
,COALESCE(10, NULL) AS c1
,COALESCE(ABS(10), NULL) AS c2
,CASE WHEN COALESCE(10, NULL) IS NOT NULL THEN COALESCE(10, NULL) ELSE NULL END AS c3
INTO SO5465245_OUT
FROM SO5465245_IN ;
GO
SELECT TABLE_NAME
,COLUMN_NAME
,IS_NULLABLE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME LIKE 'SO5465245%'
ORDER BY TABLE_NAME
,ORDINAL_POSITION ;
GO
DROP TABLE SO5465245_IN ;
GO
DROP TABLE SO5465245_OUT ;
GO

Answer 2

This soulution I've recently come up with and though I should share:
select top 0
B.*
into
TargetTable
from
SourceTable as A
left join SourceTable as B on 1 = 0
This effectively creates a duplicated structure of SourceTable in TargetTable with all columns nullable (at least in sql2008).

Answer 3

CONVERT will make your columns nullable, and works for literals/constants too. Tested in SQL Server 2005/2008.
SELECT
SomeText = CONVERT(varchar(10), 'literal'),
SomeNumber = CONVERT(int, 0)
INTO SO5465245
INSERT SO5465245 VALUES (null, null)
SELECT TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE, IS_NULLABLE
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'SO5465245'
ORDER BY TABLE_NAME, ORDINAL_POSITION
DROP TABLE SO5465245

Answer 4

If you want to inherit nullablity for the destination column irrespective of the source table columns you can follow this query.
SELECT COLUMN1, COLUMN2, COLUMN3 INTO DestinationTable from SourceTable
if this was your query where COLUMN1,COLUMN2,COLUMN3 were not nullable in SourceTable then change the query as
SELECT NULL COLUMN1, NULL COLUMN2, NULL COLUMN3 INTO DestinationTable from SourceTable
so, this will allow you to insert null values in to the Destination table.

Answer 5

I recently had the same issue - I wanted to use "select into", wanted all columns in the target table to be nullable & a repeatable approach where I didn't have to know the names of the fields in the source table.
select *
into dbo.I_Data
from
(select 1[Z_1]) A
full join (select null[Z_2], * from dbo.S_Data) B on A.Z_1 = B.Z_2
where
dbo.S_Data is the source data table and
[Z_1] & [Z_2] are two dummy columns used for the join
Then to clean up:
(a) Remove the row of nulls
delete dbo.I_Data where [Z_1] = 1
(b) Remove the dummy fields:
alter table dbo.I_Data
drop column [Z_1], [Z_2]
Regards.