In this post, I am doing a basic performance test between SELECT INTO and INSERT INTO SELECT option of SQL Server.

Database Developers are using these options very frequently for copying data between the tables. But SELECT INTO is little faster than INSERT INTO SELECT option.

Note: I am testing using a very small number of sample records. If you are testing with a huge number of records, you may find a big difference in the performance.

Please check the below examples:

Set Statistics:

SET STATISTICS IO ON
SET STATISTICS TIME ON

Create sample tables:

CREATE TABLE tbl_MyData (ID INT, Name VARCHAR(10))
CREATE TABLE tbl_Mytable (ID INT, Name VARCHAR(10))

INSERT INTO tbl_MyData VALUES (1,'dbrnd')
GO 1000000

Perform INSERT INTO SELECT:

INSERT INTO  tbl_Mytable 
SELECT ID, Name 
FROM tbl_MyData

Execution time:

SQL Server Execution Times:
CPU time = 16 ms,  elapsed time = 37 ms.

Perform SELECT INTO:

SELECT ID, Name 
INTO tbl_MyTable2
FROM tbl_MyData

Execution time:

SQL Server Execution Times:
CPU time = 16 ms,  elapsed time = 21 ms.