SELECT INTO USING UNION QUERY

Question

I want to create a new table in SQL Server with the following query. I am unable to understand why this query doesn't work.

Query1: Works

SELECT * FROM TABLE1 UNION SELECT * FROM TABLE2  

Query2: Does not Work. Error: Msg 170, Level 15, State 1, Line 7 Line 7: Incorrect syntax near ')'.

SELECT * INTO [NEW_TABLE] FROM ( SELECT * FROM TABLE1 UNION SELECT * FROM TABLE2 ) 

Thanks!

Answer 1

You have to define a table alias for a derived table in SQL Server:

SELECT x.*    INTO [NEW_TABLE]   FROM (SELECT * FROM TABLE1         UNION         SELECT * FROM TABLE2) x 

"x" is the table alias in this example.