Converting Select results into Insert script - SQL Server [closed]

Answer 1

I had a similar problem, but I needed to be able to create an INSERT statement from a query (with filters etc.)

So I created following procedure:

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.ConvertQueryToInsert (@input NVARCHAR(max), @target NVARCHAR(max)) AS BEGIN

    DECLARE @fields NVARCHAR(max);
    DECLARE @select NVARCHAR(max);

    -- Get the defintion from sys.columns and assemble a string with the fields/transformations for the dynamic query
    SELECT
        @fields = COALESCE(@fields + ', ', '') + '[' + name +']', 
        @select = COALESCE(@select + ', ', '') + ''''''' + ISNULL(CAST([' + name + '] AS NVARCHAR(max)), ''NULL'')+'''''''
    FROM tempdb.sys.columns 
    WHERE [object_id] = OBJECT_ID(N'tempdb..'+@input);

    -- Run the a dynamic query with the fields from @select into a new temp table
    CREATE TABLE #ConvertQueryToInsertTemp (strings nvarchar(max))
    DECLARE @stmt NVARCHAR(max) = 'INSERT INTO #ConvertQueryToInsertTemp SELECT '''+ @select + ''' AS [strings] FROM '+@input
    exec sp_executesql @stmt

    -- Output the final insert statement 
    SELECT 'INSERT INTO ' + @target + ' (' + @fields + ') VALUES (' + REPLACE(strings, '''NULL''', 'NULL') +')' FROM #ConvertQueryToInsertTemp

    -- Clean up temp tables
    DROP TABLE #ConvertQueryToInsertTemp
    SET @stmt = 'DROP TABLE ' + @input
    exec sp_executesql @stmt
END

You can then use it by writing the output of your query into a temp table and running the procedure:

-- Example table
CREATE TABLE Dummy (Id INT, Comment NVARCHAR(50), TimeStamp DATETIME)
INSERT INTO Dummy VALUES (1 , 'Foo', GetDate()), (2, 'Bar', GetDate()), (3, 'Foo Bar', GetDate())

-- Run query and procedure
SELECT * INTO #TempTableForConvert FROM Dummy WHERE Id < 3
EXEC dbo.ConvertQueryToInsert '#TempTableForConvert', 'dbo.Dummy'

Note: This procedure only casts the values to a string which can cause the data to look a bit different. With DATETIME for example the seconds will be lost.