Move SQL data from one table to another

All these answers run the same query for the INSERT and DELETE. As mentioned previously, this risks the DELETE picking up records inserted between statements and could be slow if the query is complex (although clever engines "should" make the second call fast).

The correct way (assuming the INSERT is into a fresh table) is to do the DELETE against table1 using the key field of table2.

The delete should be:

DELETE FROM tbl_OldTableName WHERE id in (SELECT id FROM tbl_NewTableName)

Excuse my syntax, I'm jumping between engines but you get the idea.

Should be possible using two statements within one transaction, an insert and a delete:

BEGIN TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO Table2 (<columns>)
SELECT <columns>
FROM Table1
WHERE <condition>;

DELETE FROM Table1
WHERE <condition>;

COMMIT;

This is the simplest form. If you have to worry about new matching records being inserted into table1 between the two statements, you can add an and exists <in table2>.

This is an ancient post, sorry, but I only came across it now and I wanted to give my solution to whoever might stumble upon this one day.

As some have mentioned, performing an INSERT and then a DELETE might lead to integrity issues, so perhaps a way to get around it, and to perform everything neatly in a single statement, is to take advantage of the [deleted] temporary table.

DELETE FROM [source]
OUTPUT [deleted].<column_list>
INTO [destination] (<column_list>)