Question

How does one combine the SELECT and INSERT INTO commands and insert the results into a temporary table in SQL Server?

Something like this:

INSERT INTO #TempTable 
    SELECT * FROM MyTable;

Answer 1

You got two options. First one is to create your temp table and then use INSERT INTO … SELECT, like this:

CREATE TABLE #temp (
  Col1 ...
);

INSERT INTO #temp
SELECT * FROM OtherTable;

The second option is to insert directly in a new temp table:

SELECT  *
INTO    #temp
FROM    OtherTable;

Big difference is that using method 1, you need to specify all the columns in your temp table in advance. Method 2 gives you a temp table that automatically has all the columns of your OtherTable.