PostgreSQL INSERT INTO table that does not exist

Question

I have some temp table:

CREATE TEMP TABLE IF NOT EXISTS temp_test (
col1 INTEGER NOT NULL,
col2 CHARACTER VARYING NOT NULL,
col3 BOOLEAN);

Then I do some inserts into temp_test (that works fine).

Later, without creating a new table test , I try doing the following:

INSERT INTO test(col1,col2,col3) SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM temp_tes;

And I get the following error: ERROR: relation "test" does not exist

I thought that if I'm using INSERT INTO , it should create the table for me. does it not?

If it matters, I'm using PostgreSQL 9.6.16.

Answer 1

You are wrong. INSERT inserts into an existing table; it does not create a table.

If you want to create a table, use CREATE TABLE AS :

CREATE TABLE test AS
    SELECT col1, ol2, col3
    FROM temp_tes;