CREATE TABLE AS SQL - Language Statements CREATE TABLE AS create a new table from the results of a query CREATE TABLE AS CREATE [ [ GLOBAL | LOCAL ] { TEMPORARY | TEMP } ] TABLE table_name [ (column_name [, ...] ) ] [ [ WITH | WITHOUT ] OIDS ] AS query CREATE TABLE AS creates a table and fills it with data computed by a SELECT command or an EXECUTE that runs a prepared SELECT command. The table columns have the names and data types associated with the output columns of the SELECT (except that you can override the column names by giving an explicit list of new column names). CREATE TABLE AS bears some resemblance to creating a view, but it is really quite different: it creates a new table and evaluates the query just once to fill the new table initially. The new table will not track subsequent changes to the source tables of the query. In contrast, a view re-evaluates its defining SELECT statement whenever it is queried. GLOBAL or LOCAL Ignored for compatibility. Refer to for details. TEMPORARY or TEMP If specified, the table is created as a temporary table. Refer to for details. table_name The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to be created. column_name The name of a column in the new table. If column names are not provided, they are taken from the output column names of the query. If the table is created out of an EXECUTE command, a column name list can currently not be specified. WITH OIDS WITHOUT OIDS This optional clause specifies whether the table created by CREATE TABLE AS should include OIDs. If neither form of this clause if specified, the value of the default_with_oids configuration parameter is used. query A query statement (that is, a SELECT command or an EXECUTE command that runs a prepared SELECT command). Refer to or , respectively, for a description of the allowed syntax. This command is functionally similar to , but it is preferred since it is less likely to be confused with other uses of the SELECT INTO syntax. Furthermore, CREATE TABLE AS offers a superset of the functionality offerred by SELECT INTO. Prior to PostgreSQL 7.5, CREATE TABLE AS always included OIDs in the table it produced. Furthermore, these OIDs were newly generated: they were distinct from the OIDs of any of the rows in the source tables of the SELECT or EXECUTE statement. Therefore, if CREATE TABLE AS was frequently executed, the OID counter would be rapidly incremented. As of PostgresSQL 7.5, the CREATE TABLE AS command allows the user to explicitely specify whether OIDs should be included. If the presence of OIDs is not explicitely specified, the default_with_oids configuration variable is used. While this variable currently defaults to true, the default value may be changed in the future. Therefore, applications that require OIDs in the table created by CREATE TABLE AS should explicitely specify WITH OIDS to ensure compatibility with future versions of PostgreSQL. This command is modeled after an Oracle feature. There is no command with equivalent functionality in the SQL standard. However, a combination of CREATE TABLE and INSERT ... SELECT can accomplish the same thing with little more effort.