CREATE TABLE AS

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Warning:
CockroachDB v22.1 is no longer supported as of November 24, 2023. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.

The CREATE TABLE ... AS statement creates a new table from a selection query.

Note:

The CREATE TABLE AS statement performs a schema change. For more information about how online schema changes work in CockroachDB, see Online Schema Changes.

Intended use

Tables created with CREATE TABLE ... AS are intended to persist the result of a query for later reuse.

This can be more efficient than a view when the following two conditions are met:

  • The result of the query is used as-is multiple times.
  • The copy needs not be kept up-to-date with the original table over time.

When the results of a query are reused multiple times within a larger query, a view is advisable instead. The query optimizer can "peek" into the view and optimize the surrounding query using the primary key and indices of the tables mentioned in the view query.

A view is also advisable when the results must be up-to-date; a view always retrieves the current data from the tables that the view query mentions.

Required privileges

The user must have the CREATE privilege on the parent database.

Synopsis

Parameters

Parameter Description
IF NOT EXISTS Create a new table only if a table of the same name does not already exist in the database; if one does exist, do not return an error.

Note that IF NOT EXISTS checks the table name only; it does not check if an existing table has the same columns, indexes, constraints, etc., of the new table.
table_name The name of the table to create, which must be unique within its database and follow these identifier rules. When the parent database is not set as the default, the name must be formatted as database.name.

The UPSERT and INSERT ON CONFLICT statements use a temporary table called excluded to handle uniqueness conflicts during execution. It's therefore not recommended to use the name excluded for any of your tables.
column_name The name of the column you want to use instead of the name of the column from select_stmt.
create_as_col_qual_list An optional column definition, which may include primary key constraints and column family assignments.
family_def An optional column family definition. Column family names must be unique within the table but can have the same name as columns, constraints, or indexes.
create_as_constraint_def An optional primary key constraint.
select_stmt A selection query to provide the data.
opt_persistence_temp_table Defines the table as a session-scoped temporary table. For more information, see Temporary Tables.

Note that the LOCAL, GLOBAL, and UNLOGGED options are no-ops, allowed by the parser for PostgreSQL compatibility.

Support for temporary tables is in preview.
opt_with_storage_parameter_list A comma-separated list of spatial index tuning parameters. Supported parameters include fillfactor, s2_max_level, s2_level_mod, s2_max_cells, geometry_min_x, geometry_max_x, geometry_min_y, and geometry_max_y. The fillfactor parameter is a no-op, allowed for PostgreSQL-compatibility.

For details, see Spatial index tuning parameters. For an example, see Create a spatial index that uses all of the tuning parameters.
ON COMMIT PRESERVE ROWS This clause is a no-op, allowed by the parser for PostgreSQL compatibility. CockroachDB only supports session-scoped temporary tables, and does not support the clauses ON COMMIT DELETE ROWS and ON COMMIT DROP, which are used to define transaction-scoped temporary tables in PostgreSQL.

Limitations

The default rules for column families apply.

The primary key of tables created with CREATE TABLE ... AS is not automatically derived from the query results. You must specify new primary keys at table creation. For examples, see Specify a primary key.

Examples

Setup

The following examples use MovR, a fictional vehicle-sharing application, to demonstrate CockroachDB SQL statements. For more information about the MovR example application and dataset, see MovR: A Global Vehicle-sharing App.

To follow along, run cockroach demo to start a temporary, in-memory cluster with the movr dataset preloaded:

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$ cockroach demo

Create a table from a SELECT query

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> SELECT * FROM users WHERE city = 'new york';
                   id                  |   city   |       name       |           address           | credit_card
+--------------------------------------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------+-------------+
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | new york | Robert Murphy    | 99176 Anderson Mills        | 8885705228
  051eb851-eb85-4ec0-8000-000000000001 | new york | James Hamilton   | 73488 Sydney Ports Suite 57 | 8340905892
  0a3d70a3-d70a-4d80-8000-000000000002 | new york | Judy White       | 18580 Rosario Ville Apt. 61 | 2597958636
  0f5c28f5-c28f-4c00-8000-000000000003 | new york | Devin Jordan     | 81127 Angela Ferry Apt. 8   | 5614075234
  147ae147-ae14-4b00-8000-000000000004 | new york | Catherine Nelson | 1149 Lee Alley              | 0792553487
  19999999-9999-4a00-8000-000000000005 | new york | Nicole Mcmahon   | 11540 Patton Extensions     | 0303726947
(6 rows)
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> CREATE TABLE users_ny AS SELECT * FROM users WHERE city = 'new york';
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> SELECT * FROM users_ny;
                   id                  |   city   |       name       |           address           | credit_card
+--------------------------------------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------+-------------+
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | new york | Robert Murphy    | 99176 Anderson Mills        | 8885705228
  051eb851-eb85-4ec0-8000-000000000001 | new york | James Hamilton   | 73488 Sydney Ports Suite 57 | 8340905892
  0a3d70a3-d70a-4d80-8000-000000000002 | new york | Judy White       | 18580 Rosario Ville Apt. 61 | 2597958636
  0f5c28f5-c28f-4c00-8000-000000000003 | new york | Devin Jordan     | 81127 Angela Ferry Apt. 8   | 5614075234
  147ae147-ae14-4b00-8000-000000000004 | new york | Catherine Nelson | 1149 Lee Alley              | 0792553487
  19999999-9999-4a00-8000-000000000005 | new york | Nicole Mcmahon   | 11540 Patton Extensions     | 0303726947
(6 rows)

Change column names

This statement creates a copy of an existing table but with changed column names:

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> CREATE TABLE users_ny_names (user_id, user_name) AS SELECT id, name FROM users WHERE city = 'new york';
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> SELECT * FROM users_ny_names;
                user_id                |    user_name
+--------------------------------------+------------------+
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | Robert Murphy
  051eb851-eb85-4ec0-8000-000000000001 | James Hamilton
  0a3d70a3-d70a-4d80-8000-000000000002 | Judy White
  0f5c28f5-c28f-4c00-8000-000000000003 | Devin Jordan
  147ae147-ae14-4b00-8000-000000000004 | Catherine Nelson
  19999999-9999-4a00-8000-000000000005 | Nicole Mcmahon
(6 rows)

Create a table from a VALUES clause

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> CREATE TABLE drivers (id, city, name) AS VALUES (gen_random_uuid(), 'new york', 'Harry Potter'), (gen_random_uuid(), 'seattle', 'Evelyn Martin');
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> SELECT * FROM drivers;
                   id                  |   city   |     name
+--------------------------------------+----------+---------------+
  146eebc4-c913-4678-8ea3-c5797d2b7f83 | new york | Harry Potter
  43cafd3b-2537-4fd8-a987-8138f88a22a4 | seattle  | Evelyn Martin
(2 rows)

Create a copy of an existing table

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> CREATE TABLE users_ny_copy AS TABLE users_ny;
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> SELECT * FROM users_ny_copy;
                   id                  |   city   |       name       |           address           | credit_card
+--------------------------------------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------+-------------+
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | new york | Robert Murphy    | 99176 Anderson Mills        | 8885705228
  051eb851-eb85-4ec0-8000-000000000001 | new york | James Hamilton   | 73488 Sydney Ports Suite 57 | 8340905892
  0a3d70a3-d70a-4d80-8000-000000000002 | new york | Judy White       | 18580 Rosario Ville Apt. 61 | 2597958636
  0f5c28f5-c28f-4c00-8000-000000000003 | new york | Devin Jordan     | 81127 Angela Ferry Apt. 8   | 5614075234
  147ae147-ae14-4b00-8000-000000000004 | new york | Catherine Nelson | 1149 Lee Alley              | 0792553487
  19999999-9999-4a00-8000-000000000005 | new york | Nicole Mcmahon   | 11540 Patton Extensions     | 0303726947
(6 rows)

When a table copy is created this way, the copy is not associated to any primary key, secondary index, or constraint that was present on the original table.

Specify a primary key

You can specify the primary key of a new table created from a selection query:

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> CREATE TABLE users_ny_pk (id, city, name PRIMARY KEY) AS SELECT id, city, name FROM users WHERE city = 'new york';
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> SELECT * FROM users_ny_pk;
                   id                  |   city   |       name
+--------------------------------------+----------+------------------+
  147ae147-ae14-4b00-8000-000000000004 | new york | Catherine Nelson
  0f5c28f5-c28f-4c00-8000-000000000003 | new york | Devin Jordan
  051eb851-eb85-4ec0-8000-000000000001 | new york | James Hamilton
  0a3d70a3-d70a-4d80-8000-000000000002 | new york | Judy White
  19999999-9999-4a00-8000-000000000005 | new york | Nicole Mcmahon
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | new york | Robert Murphy
(6 rows)
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> SHOW CREATE TABLE users_ny_pk;
    table_name   |                 create_statement
+----------------+--------------------------------------------------+
  users_ny_extra | CREATE TABLE users_ny_extra (
                 |     id UUID NULL,
                 |     city VARCHAR NULL,
                 |     name VARCHAR NOT NULL,
                 |     CONSTRAINT "primary" PRIMARY KEY (name ASC),
                 |     FAMILY "primary" (id, city, name)
                 | )
(1 row)

Define column families

You can define the column families of a new table created from a selection query:

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> CREATE TABLE users_ny_alt (id PRIMARY KEY FAMILY ids, name, city FAMILY locs, address, credit_card FAMILY payments) AS SELECT id, name, city, address, credit_card FROM users WHERE city = 'new york';
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> SELECT * FROM users_ny_alt;
                   id                  |       name       |   city   |           address           | credit_card
+--------------------------------------+------------------+----------+-----------------------------+-------------+
  00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000 | Robert Murphy    | new york | 99176 Anderson Mills        | 8885705228
  051eb851-eb85-4ec0-8000-000000000001 | James Hamilton   | new york | 73488 Sydney Ports Suite 57 | 8340905892
  0a3d70a3-d70a-4d80-8000-000000000002 | Judy White       | new york | 18580 Rosario Ville Apt. 61 | 2597958636
  0f5c28f5-c28f-4c00-8000-000000000003 | Devin Jordan     | new york | 81127 Angela Ferry Apt. 8   | 5614075234
  147ae147-ae14-4b00-8000-000000000004 | Catherine Nelson | new york | 1149 Lee Alley              | 0792553487
  19999999-9999-4a00-8000-000000000005 | Nicole Mcmahon   | new york | 11540 Patton Extensions     | 0303726947
(6 rows)
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> SHOW CREATE TABLE users_ny_alt;
   table_name  |                create_statement
+--------------+------------------------------------------------+
  users_ny_alt | CREATE TABLE users_ny_alt (
               |     id UUID NOT NULL,
               |     name VARCHAR NULL,
               |     city VARCHAR NULL,
               |     address VARCHAR NULL,
               |     credit_card VARCHAR NULL,
               |     CONSTRAINT "primary" PRIMARY KEY (id ASC),
               |     FAMILY ids (id, name, address),
               |     FAMILY locs (city),
               |     FAMILY payments (credit_card)
               | )
(1 row)

See also


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