A more efficient way to do a select insert that involves over 300 columns? - sql

Question

I am trying to find a more efficient way to write PL/SQL Query to
to select insert from a table with 300+ columns, to the back up version of that table (same column names + 2 extra columns).
I could simply type out all the column names in the script (example below), but with that many names, it will bother me... :(
INSERT INTO
TABLE_TEMP
(column1, column2, column3, etc)
(SELECT column1, column2, column3, etc FROM TABLE WHERE id = USER_ID);
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Specify literals/null for those two extra columns.
INSERT INTO
TABLE_TEMP
SELECT t1.*, null, null FROM TABLE t1 WHERE id = USER_ID

Answer 2

You can pretty easily build a column list for any given table:
select table_catalog
,table_schema
,table_name
,string_agg(column_name, ', ' order by ordinal_position)
from information_schema.columns
where table_catalog = 'catalog_name'
and table_schema = 'schema_name'
and table_name = 'table_name'
group by table_catalog
,table_schema
,table_name
That should get you nearly where you need to be.

Answer 3

The question tag says plsql, which is Oracle or one of its variants. Here is an example of doing it in Oracle:
drop table brianl.deleteme1;
drop table brianl.deleteme2;
CREATE TABLE brianl.deleteme1
(
a INTEGER
, b INTEGER
, c INTEGER
, efg INTEGER
);
CREATE TABLE brianl.deleteme2
(
b INTEGER
, c INTEGER
, d INTEGER
, efg INTEGER
);
DECLARE
l_ownerfrom VARCHAR2 (30) := 'BRIANL';
l_tablefrom VARCHAR2 (30) := 'DELETEME1';
l_ownerto VARCHAR2 (30) := 'BRIANL';
l_tableto VARCHAR2 (30) := 'DELETEME2';
l_comma VARCHAR2 (1) := NULL;
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line ('insert into ' || l_ownerto || '.' || l_tableto || '(');
FOR eachrec IN ( SELECT f.column_name
FROM all_tab_cols f INNER JOIN all_tab_cols t ON (f.column_name = t.column_name)
WHERE f.owner = l_ownerfrom
AND f.table_name = l_tablefrom
AND t.owner = l_ownerto
AND t.table_name = l_tableto
ORDER BY f.column_name)
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (l_comma || eachrec.column_name);
l_comma := ',';
END LOOP;
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (') select ');
l_comma := NULL;
FOR eachrec IN ( SELECT f.column_name
FROM all_tab_cols f INNER JOIN all_tab_cols t ON (f.column_name = t.column_name)
WHERE f.owner = l_ownerfrom
AND f.table_name = l_tablefrom
AND t.owner = l_ownerto
AND t.table_name = l_tableto
ORDER BY f.column_name)
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (l_comma || eachrec.column_name);
l_comma := ',';
END LOOP;
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (' from ' || l_ownerfrom || '.' || l_tablefrom || ';');
END;
This results in this output:
insert into BRIANL.DELETEME2(
B
,C
,EFG
) select
B
,C
,EFG
from BRIANL.DELETEME1;
Nicely formatted:
INSERT INTO brianl.deleteme2 (b, c, efg)
SELECT b, c, efg
FROM brianl.deleteme1;