Insert rows into mySQL table where target table has more columns

Question

I have 2 tables. I want to replace rows in table 1 with the rows in table2. However table 1 has more columns (appended after the common column names) so the following will not work...

replace into table1 select * from table2;

So I have to list all the column names ...

replace into table1 (col1, col2, ...) select col1, col2, ... from table2;

Is there a shortcut way to do something like this without actually listing all the columns?

Or is there a way to generate the column names from the table so I can go? ...

replace into table1 <list of columns that are in table2> 
    select <list of columns that are in table2> from table2;

Answer 1

INSERT INTO table1 (a,b,c,d)
SELECT field_that_becomes_a, null as becomes_b, field_that_becomes_c, 'static value' as becomes_d
FROM table2

Any fields you don't specify in table1 will simply assume their specified default values (or kill the query if there is no default).