Question

In SQL, Select into ... copies rows into a different (backup) table. Is this possible if the backup table has different structure (or different column names)? If not, what is the best way to achieve this?

Here is what I want to do: TableA has columns a1,a2,a3. I want to copy some rows from this table to another table TableB which has column b1,b2,b3,b4. Content of a1 to go into b1, a2 to b2 etc.

Answer 1

The column names do not matter at all, as long as data types match (or can be cast in the assignment).

If the data types of the columns don’t match, try casting the values accordingly. Just try with small dummy tables. Be sure to list the target columns explicitly to avoid confusion. Like this:

INSERT INTO TableB (b1, b2, b3)
SELECT a1, a2, a3
FROM   TableA
WHERE  <some condition>;

More details in the SQLite manual here.