Fill database tables with a large amount of test data

Question

I need to load a table with a large amount of test data. This is to be used for testing performance and scaling.

How can I easily create 100,000 rows of random/junk

Answer 1

create table mydata as select * from information_schema.columns;
insert into mydata select * from mydata;
-- repeating the insert 11 times will give you at least 6 mln rows in the table.