PostgreSQL - insert data from one table to another

In this article, we would like to show how to insert data from one table to another in PostgreSQL.

Quick solution:

INSERT INTO "dst_table" (SELECT * FROM "src_table")

Where:

• src_table means source table name,
• dst_table means destination table name.

Practical examples

In this section, we want to show how to copy data with INSERT ... SELECT query.

Note: at the end of this article you can find database preparation SQL queries.

Query:

INSERT INTO "users" ("name", "email", "country")
SELECT "name", "email", ''
FROM "members";

Result:

Database preparation

create_tables.sql file:

CREATE TABLE "users" (
	"id" SERIAL,
	"name" VARCHAR(100),
	"email" VARCHAR(100),
	"country" VARCHAR(15),
	PRIMARY KEY ("id")
);

CREATE TABLE "members" (
	"id" SERIAL,
	"name" VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	"surname" VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	"email" VARCHAR(50),
	PRIMARY KEY ("id")
);

insert_data.sql file:

INSERT INTO "users"
    ("name", "email", "country")
VALUES
    ('Tom', 'tom@email.com', 'Poland'),
    ('Chris', 'chris@email.com', 'Spain'),
    ('Jack', 'jack@email.com', 'Spain'),
    ('Kim', 'kim@email.com', 'Vietnam'),
    ('Marco', 'marco@email.com', 'Italy'),
    ('Kate', 'kate@email.com', 'Spain'),
    ('Nam', 'nam@email.com', 'Vietnam');

INSERT INTO "members"
	( "name", "surname", "email")
VALUES
	('John', 'Stewart', 'john@email.com'),
	('Chris', 'Brown', NULL),
	('Kate', 'Lewis', NULL),
	('Ailisa', 'Gomez', 'ailisa@email.com'),
	('Gwendolyn', 'James', NULL),
	('Simon', 'Collins', NULL),
	('Taylor', 'Martin', NULL),
	('Andrew', 'Thompson', 'andrew@email.com');