Generate CREATE TABLE script from SELECT statement

Question

The problem is that: In SQL Server,I have a SELECT statement that might take any form like

SELECT ID,Name
FROM Table1;

Or

SELECT ID,Name
FROM Table1
WHERE ID IN(
SELECT ID
FROM Table2
WHERE City = 'C1'
)

or

SELECT *
FROM
(
  SELECT ID,Name
  FROM Tablex
  INTERSECT
  SELECT ID,Name
  FROM Tablex
) AS T

or whatever sql statement that might be very complex, and I need to generate the CREATE TABLE statement that creates a table with a structure that can hold the data of the result set returned by the SELECT statement.

The code can be C# or T-SQL.

EDIT:

The SELECT statement is a parameter passed to my application.The SELECT statement usually returns millions of records that will be transferred from a server to another so I need the CREATE TABLE script to be executed on the destination server to which the data will be transferred.

Answer 1

Here is my try inspired from the comments on my question, and many thanks to everybody:

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("server=myserver;database=mydb;user id=sa;password=mypassword;"))
            {

                Console.WriteLine(GetCreateTableFromSqlCode(@"
SELECT ID,Eid,Keyword AS Keywords,KeywordType AS Sources,Year
FROM Eid_Keywords 
WHERE Eid IN(SELECT Eid FROM ReviewersPublications)","Keywords",con));                

            }
        }

        public static string GetCreateTableFromSqlCode(string sqlSelect,string tableName, SqlConnection con)
        {            
            SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(string.Format("SET FMTONLY ON;\r\n{0}\r\nSET FMTONLY OFF;",sqlSelect), con);
            try
            {
                con.Open();
                SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                DataTable dt = reader.GetSchemaTable();
                reader.Close();
                return GetCreateTableScript(dt, tableName);

            }
            finally
            {
                if (con.State == ConnectionState.Open)
                    con.Close();
            }

        }

        private static string GetCreateTableScript(DataTable dt,string tableName)
        {
            string snip = string.Empty;
            StringBuilder sql = new StringBuilder();
            sql.AppendFormat("CREATE TABLE {0}\r\n(\r\n",tableName);
            for (int i = 0; i < dt.Rows.Count;i++)
            {
                DataRow dr = dt.Rows[i];
                snip = GetColumnSql(dr);
                sql.AppendFormat((i < dt.Rows.Count - 1) ? snip : snip.TrimEnd(',','\r','\n'));
            }
            sql.AppendFormat("\r\n)");
            return sql.ToString();
        }


        private static string GetColumnSql(DataRow dr)
        {
            StringBuilder sql = new StringBuilder();
            sql.AppendFormat("\t[{0}] {1}{2} {3} {4},\r\n",
                dr["ColumnName"].ToString(),
                dr["DataTypeName"].ToString(),
                (HasSize(dr["DataTypeName"].ToString())) ? "(" + dr["ColumnSize"].ToString() + ")" : (HasPrecisionAndScale(dr["DataTypeName"].ToString())) ? "(" + dr["NumericPrecision"].ToString() + "," + dr["NumericScale"].ToString() + ")" : "",
                (dr["IsIdentity"].ToString() == "true") ? "IDENTITY" : "",
                (dr["AllowDBNull"].ToString() == "true") ? "NULL" : "NOT NULL");
            return sql.ToString();
        }

        private static bool HasSize(string dataType)
        {            
            Dictionary<string, bool> dataTypes = new Dictionary<string, bool>();
            dataTypes.Add("bigint", false);
            dataTypes.Add("binary", true);
            dataTypes.Add("bit", false);
            dataTypes.Add("char", true);
            dataTypes.Add("date", false);
            dataTypes.Add("datetime", false);
            dataTypes.Add("datetime2", false);
            dataTypes.Add("datetimeoffset", false);
            dataTypes.Add("decimal", false);
            dataTypes.Add("float", false);
            dataTypes.Add("geography", false);
            dataTypes.Add("geometry", false);
            dataTypes.Add("hierarchyid", false);
            dataTypes.Add("image", true);
            dataTypes.Add("int", false);
            dataTypes.Add("money", false);
            dataTypes.Add("nchar", true);
            dataTypes.Add("ntext", true);
            dataTypes.Add("numeric", false);
            dataTypes.Add("nvarchar", true);
            dataTypes.Add("real", false);
            dataTypes.Add("smalldatetime", false);
            dataTypes.Add("smallint", false);
            dataTypes.Add("smallmoney", false);
            dataTypes.Add("sql_variant", false);
            dataTypes.Add("sysname", false);
            dataTypes.Add("text", true);
            dataTypes.Add("time", false);
            dataTypes.Add("timestamp", false);
            dataTypes.Add("tinyint", false);
            dataTypes.Add("uniqueidentifier", false);
            dataTypes.Add("varbinary", true);
            dataTypes.Add("varchar", true);
            dataTypes.Add("xml", false);
            if (dataTypes.ContainsKey(dataType))
                return dataTypes[dataType];
            return false;
        }

        private static bool HasPrecisionAndScale(string dataType)
        {
            Dictionary<string, bool> dataTypes = new Dictionary<string, bool>();
            dataTypes.Add("bigint", false);
            dataTypes.Add("binary", false);
            dataTypes.Add("bit", false);
            dataTypes.Add("char", false);
            dataTypes.Add("date", false);
            dataTypes.Add("datetime", false);
            dataTypes.Add("datetime2", false);
            dataTypes.Add("datetimeoffset", false);
            dataTypes.Add("decimal", true);
            dataTypes.Add("float", true);
            dataTypes.Add("geography", false);
            dataTypes.Add("geometry", false);
            dataTypes.Add("hierarchyid", false);
            dataTypes.Add("image", false);
            dataTypes.Add("int", false);
            dataTypes.Add("money", false);
            dataTypes.Add("nchar", false);
            dataTypes.Add("ntext", false);
            dataTypes.Add("numeric", false);
            dataTypes.Add("nvarchar", false);
            dataTypes.Add("real", true);
            dataTypes.Add("smalldatetime", false);
            dataTypes.Add("smallint", false);
            dataTypes.Add("smallmoney", false);
            dataTypes.Add("sql_variant", false);
            dataTypes.Add("sysname", false);
            dataTypes.Add("text", false);
            dataTypes.Add("time", false);
            dataTypes.Add("timestamp", false);
            dataTypes.Add("tinyint", false);
            dataTypes.Add("uniqueidentifier", false);
            dataTypes.Add("varbinary", false);
            dataTypes.Add("varchar", false);
            dataTypes.Add("xml", false);
            if (dataTypes.ContainsKey(dataType))
                return dataTypes[dataType];
            return false;
        }



    }

Answer 2

I think you need common table expressions (CTE) or table variables.

EDIT: Yes, it seems I have wrong understanding of question. But maybe SELECT .. INTO statement can help you? BOL says

SELECT INTO can be used to combine data from several tables or views into one table. It can also be used to create a new table that contains data selected from a linked server. The structure of the new table is defined by the attributes of the expressions in the select list.