Note that there are two different techniques to limit the insertion of rows into the table.
Method 1:
INSERT INTO TABLE …
SELECT TOP (N) Cols…
FROM Table1
Method 2:
INSERT TOP(N) INTO TABLE …
SELECT Cols…
FROM Table1
Today, we will go over the second method, which in fact is the enhancement in TOP clause along with INSERT. It is very interesting to also observe the difference between both the methods. Let us take one real example and understand what exactly happens in either case.
Method 1:
INSERT INTO TABLE …
SELECT TOP (N) Cols…
FROM Table1
Method 2:
INSERT TOP(N) INTO TABLE …
SELECT Cols…
FROM Table1
Read more: Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave