Question

I have two tables almost identical:

• employee
• employee_history

The second table has two additional fields.

I would like to copy a record from employee into employee_history using an INSERT with a subquery. Sort of like this:

INSERT INTO employee_history SELECT * FROM employee WHERE id = idQ   

My problem is that I need to add information into the 2 fields employee_history has that employee does not have:

• update_code
• date_of_change.

Is there a way I can copy a record from employee into employee_history keeping it simple like with the above insert statement while adding the 2 new pieces of data?

Answer 1

Alias the employee table and select all the columns then add the two new columns wherever they fit (at the beginning or end of the list):

INSERT INTO employee_history SELECT e.*, 'x', 'y' FROM employee e WHERE id = idQ;

You need to alias the table because you would get an error (ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected) if you ran it as such:

INSERT INTO employee_history SELECT *, 'x', 'y' FROM employee WHERE id = idQ;

The problem would be if your two additional columns in the employee_history table were in the middle of the list of columns in the employee table. In that case you’d have to individually select each column.