Select Into SQL

The `SELECT INTO` statement is a powerful tool for creating new tables and populating them with data from existing tables. It's a concise way to duplicate data or create a backup copy of a table. This statement is often used in data warehousing, data migration, or simply for creating a copy of a table for testing or analysis. Crucially, the `SELECT INTO` statement creates a *new* table; it doesn't modify the original table. This is a key distinction from other data manipulation operations. It's important to ensure the new table's structure matches the selected data's structure. For example, if you're selecting columns from a table, the new table will have those same columns. If you need to modify the structure of the copied data, you'll need to use other SQL commands like `ALTER TABLE` after the `SELECT INTO` operation.