SELECT INTO a table variable in T-SQL

You can also use common table expressions to store temporary datasets. They are more elegant and adhoc friendly:

WITH userData (name, oldlocation)
AS
(
  SELECT name, location 
  FROM   myTable    INNER JOIN 
         otherTable ON ...
  WHERE  age>30
)
SELECT * 
FROM   userData -- you can also reuse the recordset in subqueries and joins

The purpose of SELECT INTO is (per the docs, my emphasis)

To create a new table from values in another table

But you already have a target table! So what you want is

The INSERT statement adds one or more new rows to a table

You can specify the data values in the following ways:

...

By using a SELECT subquery to specify the data values for one or more rows, such as:

  INSERT INTO MyTable 
 (PriKey, Description)
        SELECT ForeignKey, Description
        FROM SomeView

And in this syntax, it's allowed for MyTable to be a table variable.


Try something like this:

DECLARE @userData TABLE(
    name varchar(30) NOT NULL,
    oldlocation varchar(30) NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO @userData (name, oldlocation)
SELECT name, location FROM myTable
INNER JOIN otherTable ON ...
WHERE age > 30;