when creating a copy of another table, lets say table 'tab1' already exists and I want to make a copy of it named 'tab2'
CREATE TABLE tab2 AS SELECT * FROM tab1 WHERE 1=1;
creates a copy of structure and data.
CREATE TABLE tab2 AS SELECT * FROM tab1 WHERE 1=2;
creates only the structure.
to my knowledge 1=1 means TRUE and 1=2 means FALSE.
instead of 1=1 can I say 69=69 ?
instead of 1=2 can I say 99=2 ?
where 1=1 simply means "where true" and it WILL copy all the data from the old table into the new table.
where 1=2 means "where untrue" and because no rows will match that condition NO DATA is copied to the new table (but the new table is a copy of the old table's structure).
So, where 1=1 is used to get the both the table structure and data, while where 1=2 is used to copy a table structure but with no data in the new table.
Yes, you could use 69=69 (true) or 99=2 (untrue) but it is more conventional not to be inventive here as it could get very confusing for those who come later to support your code.
A simple query on the INTO clause. When i try the below statement, the items get pushed into CustomersBackup2013 whether the table exists or not.
SELECT *
INTO CustomersBackup2013
FROM Customers;
However, when i try using the into clause in a MERGE like
MERGE TargetTable tt
USING SyncTable st on <condition>
.
.
WHEN Not MATCHED BY SOURCE
DELETE
OUTPUT deleted.* INTO #Sometemptable;
I get an error saying invalid object name '#Sometemptable'
Isnt it supposed to create the table if it does not exist? Is there something I am doing wrong.
Is there any way i can modify the clause to push items into #Sometemptable?
No, the table has to exists for the output clause to work.
First create the #temp table and then you can output deleted values in it. Columns in the temp table must match columns from output by ordinal and type.
select into table creates a table if required. it is much like oracle's create table as select. see here select into table
merge only inserts, updates or deletes
If I have a query, say:
SELECT *
FROM ( SELECT fields
FROM tables
WHERE condition
)
AS TEMP_TABLE
are the results of the above query saved in a temporary table called TEMP_TABLE so as I can perform another query on it later? Will the query below be executed successfully when using DB2?
SELECT fields
FROM TEMP_TABLE
WHERE condition
The answer is NO, it's just an alias for a subquery.
If you want to use it later, you have to explicitly create it.
you can create temporary table in following way.
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE temp_table AS (
SELECT fields
FROM tables
WHERE condition
);
then you can retrieve data from the temp table as below.
SELECT * FROM temp_table
If I do a Create Table If Not Exists, and a table with the same name exists with fewer rows (or columns), what would happen?
The table will not be created if a table with the same name already exists regardless of table layout.
Nothing. If the "IF Not Exists" clause fails, the rest of the create is skipped.
I know the statement:
create table xyz_new as select * from xyz;
Which copies the structure and the data, but what if I just want the structure?
Just use a where clause that won't select any rows:
create table xyz_new as select * from xyz where 1=0;
Limitations
The following things will not be copied to the new table:
sequences
triggers
indexes
some constraints may not be copied
materialized view logs
This also does not handle partitions
I used the method that you accepted a lot, but as someone pointed out it doesn't duplicate constraints (except for NOT NULL, I think).
A more advanced method if you want to duplicate the full structure is:
SET LONG 5000
SELECT dbms_metadata.get_ddl( 'TABLE', 'MY_TABLE_NAME' ) FROM DUAL;
This will give you the full create statement text which you can modify as you wish for creating the new table. You would have to change the names of the table and all constraints of course.
(You could also do this in older versions using EXP/IMP, but it's much easier now.)
Edited to add
If the table you are after is in a different schema:
SELECT dbms_metadata.get_ddl( 'TABLE', 'MY_TABLE_NAME', 'OTHER_SCHEMA_NAME' ) FROM DUAL;
create table xyz_new as select * from xyz where rownum = -1;
To avoid iterate again and again and insert nothing based on the condition where 1=2
Using sql developer select the table and click on the DDL tab
You can use that code to create a new table with no data when you run it in a sql worksheet
sqldeveloper is a free to use app from oracle.
If the table has sequences or triggers the ddl will sometimes generate those for you too. You just have to be careful what order you make them in and know when to turn the triggers on or off.
You can do this
Create table New_table as select * from Old_table where 1=2 ;
but be careful
The table you create does not have any Index, PK and so on like the old_table.
DECLARE
l_ddl VARCHAR2 (32767);
BEGIN
l_ddl := REPLACE (
REPLACE (
DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR (DBMS_METADATA.get_ddl ('TABLE', 'ACTIVITY_LOG', 'OLDSCHEMA'))
, q'["OLDSCHEMA"]'
, q'["NEWSCHEMA"]'
)
, q'["OLDTABLSPACE"]'
, q'["NEWTABLESPACE"]'
);
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE l_ddl;
END;
Simply write a query like:
create table new_table as select * from old_table where 1=2;
where new_table is the name of the new table that you want to create and old_table is the name of the existing table whose structure you want to copy, this will copy only structure.
SELECT * INTO newtable
FROM oldtable
WHERE 1 = 0;
Create a new, empty table using the schema of another. Just add a WHERE clause that causes the query to return no data:
WHERE 1 = 0 or similar false conditions work, but I dislike how they look. Marginally cleaner code for Oracle 12c+ IMHO is
CREATE TABLE bar AS
SELECT *
FROM foo
FETCH FIRST 0 ROWS ONLY;
Same limitations apply: only column definitions and their nullability are copied into a new table.
If one needs to create a table (with an empty structure) just to EXCHANGE PARTITION, it is best to use the "..FOR EXCHANGE.." clause. It's available only from Oracle version 12.2 onwards though.
CREATE TABLE t1_temp FOR EXCHANGE WITH TABLE t1;
This addresses 'ORA-14097' during the 'exchange partition' seamlessly if table structures are not exactly copied by normal CTAS operation. I have seen Oracle missing some of the "DEFAULT" column and "HIDDEN" columns definitions from the original table.
ORA-14097: column type or size mismatch in ALTER TABLE EXCHANGE
PARTITION
See this for further read...
you can also do a
create table abc_new as select * from abc;
then truncate the table abc_new. Hope this will suffice your requirement.
Using pl/sql developer you can right click on the table_name either in the sql workspace or in the object explorer, than click on "view" and than click "view sql" which generates the sql script to create the table along with all the constraints, indexes, partitions etc..
Next you run the script using the new_table_name
copy without table data
create table <target_table> as select * from <source_table> where 1=2;
copy with table data
create table <target_table> as select * from <source_table>;
In other way you can get ddl of table creation from command listed below, and execute the creation.
SELECT DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL('TYPE','OBJECT_NAME','DATA_BASE_USER') TEXT FROM DUAL
TYPE is TABLE,PROCEDURE etc.
With this command you can get majority of ddl from database objects.
Create table target_table
As
Select *
from source_table
where 1=2;
Source_table is the table u wanna copy the structure of.
create table xyz_new as select * from xyz;
-- This will create table and copy all data.
delete from xyz_new;
-- This will have same table structure but all data copied will be deleted.
If you want to overcome the limitations specified by answer:
How can I create a copy of an Oracle table without copying the data?
The task above can be completed in two simple steps.
STEP 1:
CREATE table new_table_name AS(Select * from old_table_name);
The query above creates a duplicate of a table (with contents as well).
To get the structure, delete the contents of the table using.
STEP 2:
DELETE * FROM new_table_name.
Hope this solves your problem. And thanks to the earlier posts. Gave me a lot of insight.