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.