copy entire row (without knowing field names)
- by Todd Webb
Using SQL Server 2008, I would like to duplicate one row of a table, without knowing the field names. My key issue: as the table grows and mutates over time, I would like this copy-script to keep working, without me having to write out 30+ ever-changing fields, ugh.
Also at issue, of course, is IDENTITY fields cannot be copied.
My code below does work, but I wonder if there's a more appropriate method than my thrown-together text string SQL statement?
So thank you in advance. Here's my (yes, working) code - I welcome suggestions on improving it.
Todd
alter procedure spEventCopy
@EventID int
as
begin
-- VARS...
declare @SQL varchar(8000)
-- LIST ALL FIELDS (*EXCLUDE* IDENTITY FIELDS).
-- USE [BRACKETS] FOR ANY SILLY FIELD-NAMES WITH SPACES, OR RESERVED WORDS...
select @SQL = coalesce(@SQL + ', ', '') + '[' + column_name + ']'
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
where TABLE_NAME = 'EventsTable'
and COLUMNPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID('EventsTable'), COLUMN_NAME, 'IsIdentity') = 0
-- FINISH SQL COPY STATEMENT...
set @SQL = 'insert into EventsTable '
+ ' select ' + @SQL
+ ' from EventsTable '
+ ' where EventID = ' + ltrim(str(@EventID))
-- COPY ROW...
exec(@SQL)
-- REMEMBER NEW ID...
set @EventID = @@IDENTITY
-- (do other stuff here)
-- DONE...
-- JUST FOR KICKS, RETURN THE SQL STATEMENT SO I CAN REVIEW IT IF I WISH...
select EventID = @EventID, SQL = @SQL
end
