In MySQL, can I copy one row to insert into the sa

Question

insert into table select * from table where primarykey=1

I just want to copy one row to insert into the same table (i.e., I want to duplicate an existing row in the table) but I want to do this without having to list all the columns after the "select", because this table has too many columns.

But when I do this, I get the error:

Duplicate entry 'xxx' for key 1

I can handle this by creating another table with the same columns as a temporary container for the record I want to copy:

create table oldtable_temp like oldtable;
insert into oldtable_temp select * from oldtable where key=1;
update oldtable_tem set key=2;
insert into oldtable select * from oldtable where key=2;

Is there a simpler way to solve this?

Answer 1

I would use below,

insert into ORDER_ITEM select * from ORDER_ITEM where ITEM_NUMBER =123;

Answer 2

This solution showed above works perfect also for selected rows. For example I am creating demonstration rows for my nice2work project, and this works perfect.

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tmptable SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE id=500;
UPDATE tmptable SET id = 0;
UPDATE some fields I need to change
INSERT INTO myTable SELECT * FROM tmptable;
DROP TABLE tmptable;

//  You can use this same also directly into your code like (PHP Style)
$sql = "CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tmptable SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE id=500;
UPDATE tmptable SET id = 0;
UPDATE some fields I need to change
INSERT INTO myTable SELECT * FROM tmptable;DROP TABLE tmptable;";

Answer 3

I know it's an old question, but here is another solution:

This duplicates a row in the main table, assuming the primary key is auto-increment, and creates copies of linked-tables data with the new main table id.

Other options for getting column names:
-SHOW COLUMNS FROM tablename; (Column name: Field)
-DESCRIBE tablename (Column name: Field)
-SELECT column_name FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name = 'tablename' (Column name: column_name)

//First, copy main_table row
$ColumnHdr='';
$Query="SHOW COLUMNS FROM `main_table`;";
$Result=Wrappedmysql_query($Query,$link,__FILE__,__LINE__);
while($Row=mysql_fetch_array($Result))
{
    if($Row['Field']=='MainTableID')     //skip main table id in column list
        continue;
    $ColumnHdr.=",`" . $Row['Field'] . "`";
}
$Query="INSERT INTO `main_table` (" . substr($ColumnHdr,1) . ")
        (SELECT " . substr($ColumnHdr,1) . " FROM `main_table`
            WHERE `MainTableID`=" . $OldMainTableID . ");";
$Result=Wrappedmysql_query($Query,$link,__FILE__,__LINE__);
$NewMainTableID=mysql_insert_id($link);

//Change the name (assumes a 30 char field)
$Query="UPDATE `main_table` SET `Title`=CONCAT(SUBSTRING(`Title`,1,25),' Copy') WHERE `MainTableID`=" . $NewMainTableID . ";";
$Result=Wrappedmysql_query($Query,$link,__FILE__,__LINE__);

//now copy in the linked tables
$TableArr=array("main_table_link1","main_table_link2","main_table_link3");
foreach($TableArr as $TableArrK=>$TableArrV)
{
    $ColumnHdr='';
    $Query="SHOW COLUMNS FROM `" . $TableArrV . "`;";
    $Result=Wrappedmysql_query($Query,$link,__FILE__,__LINE__);
    while($Row=mysql_fetch_array($Result))
    {
        if($Row['Field']=='MainTableID')     //skip main table id in column list, re-added in query
            continue;
        if($Row['Field']=='dbID')    //skip auto-increment,primary key in linked table
            continue;
        $ColumnHdr.=",`" . $Row['Field'] . "`";
    }

    $Query="INSERT INTO `" . $TableArrV . "` (`MainTableID`," . substr($ColumnHdr,1) . ")
            (SELECT " . $NewMainTableID . "," . substr($ColumnHdr,1) . " FROM `" . $TableArrV . "`
             WHERE `MainTableID`=" . $OldMainTableID . ");";
    $Result=Wrappedmysql_query($Query,$link,__FILE__,__LINE__);
}

Answer 4

Create a table

    CREATE TABLE `sample_table` (
       `sample_id` INT(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
       `sample_name` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
       `sample_col_1` TINYINT(1) NOT NULL,
       `sample_col_2` TINYINT(2) NOT NULL,

      PRIMARY KEY (`sample_id`),
      UNIQUE KEY `sample_id` (`sample_id`)

    ) ENGINE='InnoDB' DEFAULT CHARACTER SET 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_general_ci';

Insert a row

INSERT INTO `sample_table`
   VALUES(NULL, 'sample name', 1, 2);

Clone row insert above

INSERT INTO `sample_table`
   SELECT 
    NULL AS `sample_id`, -- new AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY from MySQL
    'new dummy entry' AS `sample_name`,  -- new UNIQUE KEY from you
    `sample_col_1`, -- col from old row
    `sample_col_2` -- col from old row
   FROM `sample_table`
   WHERE `sample_id` = 1;

Test

SELECT * FROM `sample_table`;

Answer 5

Here's an answer I found online at this site Describes how to do the above1 You can find the answer at the bottom of the page. Basically, what you do is copy the row to be copied to a temporary table held in memory. You then change the Primary Key number using update. You then re-insert it into the target table. You then drop the table.

This is the code for it:

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE rescueteam ENGINE=MEMORY SELECT * FROMfitnessreport4 WHERE rID=1;# 1 row affected. UPDATE rescueteam SET rID=Null WHERE rID=1;# 1 row affected.INSERT INTO fitnessreport4 SELECT * FROM rescueteam;# 1 row affected. DROP TABLE rescueteam# MySQL returned an empty result set (i.e. zero
rows).

I created the temporary table rescueteam. I copied the row from my original table fitnessreport4. I then set the primary key for the row in the temporary table to null so that I can copy it back to the original table without getting a Duplicate Key error. I tried this code yesterday evening and it worked.

Answer 6

This can be achieved with some creativity:

SET @sql = CONCAT('INSERT INTO <table> SELECT null, 
    ', (SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(COLUMN_NAME) 
    FROM information_schema.columns 
    WHERE table_schema = '<database>' 
    AND table_name = '<table>' 
    AND column_name NOT IN ('id')), ' 
from <table> WHERE id = <id>');  

PREPARE stmt1 FROM @sql;
EXECUTE stmt1;

This will result in the new row getting an auto incremented id instead of the id from the selected row.