Question

How would I copy a bunch of rows into a table and then change the values in one column and insert them back into the same table?

The table has these columns:

[PositionControlPositionId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionJobId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionRefLocationId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionCount]
  ,[PositionControlPositionEmploymentType]
  ,[PositionControlPositionLabel]

PositionControlPositionID is the primary Key
PositionControlPositionRefLocationId and PositionControlPositionCount are foreign keys

I have tried the below query but it didn’t work

Insert into [dbo].[PositionControlPosition] ([PositionControlPositionId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionJobId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionRefLocationId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionCount]
  ,[PositionControlPositionEmploymentType]
  ,[PositionControlPositionLabel]) Select [PositionControlPositionId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionJobId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionRefLocationId]
  ,[PositionControlPositionCount]
  ,[PositionControlPositionEmploymentType]
  ,[PositionControlPositionLabel] from [dbo].[PositionControlPosition]

I have also searched google but couldn’t find anything like I needed,

I realize this might be a trivial question so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The syntax you are looking for takes the form.

 insert [table]
 select
           [a]
         , [b]
         , 'newCValue'
         , [d]
     from
         [table]

If you are not selecting all the columns then you should specify a column list on the insert

 insert [table]
         ( [a]
          ,[b]
          ,[c]
          ,[d])
 select
           [a]
         , [b]
         , 'newCValue'
         , [d]
     from
         [table]

In your case i suspect you are violating your primary key and I’m assuming its an identity column so this should work.

INSERT [dbo].[PositionControlPosition]
        (
          [PositionControlPositionJobId]
         ,[PositionControlPositionRefLocationId]
         ,[PositionControlPositionCount]
         ,[PositionControlPositionEmploymentType]
         ,[PositionControlPositionLabel]
        ) 
SELECT
          [PositionControlPositionJobId]
         ,[PositionControlPositionRefLocationId]
         ,[PositionControlPositionCount]
         ,[PositionControlPositionEmploymentType]
         ,[PositionControlPositionLabel]
    FROM
         [dbo].[PositionControlPosition]

This will duplicate the rows in PositionControlPosition excluding the primary key. If PositionControlPositionId is an identity column, it will be populated with new primary key values.