SQL Server 2005 - Insert with Select for 1 Value

Question

Basically I have 2 tables but the problem is I would like to insert data from table A column A to table B column C.

But when I try to this I get an error

My subquery is:

SELECT TOP 1 [Id] 
From [A]
Where [B] = 'ValueCon'

And here is my insert query

INSERT INTO [B]
       ([BA]
       ,[BB]
       )
VALUES
       ('TestData'
       ,(SELECT TOP 1 [Id] 
        From [A]
        Where [AB] = 'ValueCon')

       )

There is no need to worry about data types as they are all matching.

I get the following error:

Subqueries are not allowed in this context. Only scalar expressions are allowed.

I have seen many complex ways of getting around this but just need something simple.

Answer 1

May be if you use a declared param, you can use it to the INSERT

DECLARE @theInsertedId INT;

SELECT TOP 1 @theInsertedId=[Id] 
From [A]
Where [B] = 'ValueCon'

INSERT INTO [B]
       ([BA]
       ,[BB]
       )
VALUES
       ('TestData'
       ,@theInsertedId

       )

Sorry for by bad english! Hope this help!

Answer 2

Read up on the proper syntax for INSERT ! It's all very well documented in the SQL Server Books Online ....

Either you have INSERT and VALUES and you provide atomic values (variables, literal values), eg

INSERT INTO [B] ([BA], [BB])
VALUES ('TestData', @SomeVariable)

OR you're using the INSERT ... SELECT approach to select column from another table (and you can also mix in literal values), eg

INSERT INTO [B] ([BA], [BB])
   SELECT    
       TOP 1 'TestData', [Id]
   FROM [A]
   WHERE [AB] = 'ValueCon'

but you cannot mix the two styles. Pick one or the other.

Answer 3

You could just have a single select statement?

Not sure if this will work for what you are trying to do....

declare @a table 
(
ab varchar(20),
id varchar(20)
)

insert @a
select 'ValueCon',1
union all
select 'ValueCon',2
union all
select 'Con',100

declare @b table 
(
ba varchar(20),
bb varchar(20)
) 


insert @b (ba,bb)
select top 1 'TestData',id from @a where ab='Valuecon'

select * from @a
select * from @b