Doubt with a Insert query!

Question

hi friends i have a doubt with a query in sql here is the following code.
INSERT INTO
                     (SELECT employee_id, last_name,
                                  email, hire_date, job_id, salary,
                                  department_id
                       FROM employees
                      WHERE department_id = 50)
           VALUES (99999, 'Taylor', 'DTAYLOR',
                        TO_DATE('07-JUN-99', 'DD-MON-RR'),
                         'ST_CLERK', 5000, 50);The same insert statement can be achieved with
INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES (employee_id, last_name,
                                  email, hire_date, job_id, salary,
                                  department_id)
                    VALUES (99999, 'Taylor', 'DTAYLOR',
                        TO_DATE('07-JUN-99', 'DD-MON-RR'),
                         'ST_CLERK', 5000, 50);What advantage does the first query have over the second one.
Thanks in advance to everyone.
Regards,
Manoj

Answer 1

Those two statements are identical.
However this one would be different:
INSERT INTO
  (SELECT employee_id, last_name,
        email, hire_date, job_id, salary,
        department_id
   FROM employees
   WHERE department_id = 50
   with check option )
VALUES (99999, 'Taylor', 'DTAYLOR', TO_DATE('07-JUN-99', 'DD-MON-RR'), 'ST_CLERK', 5000, 50);The "WITH CHECK OPTION" would guarantee that only employees for department 50 are inserted.
see also:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e17118/statements_10002.htm#i2066598
Edited by: Sven W. on Mar 17, 2011 7:22 PM - typo correction