Some of this functionality is also available prior to 5.0 using the CREATE .. SELECT syntax.

CREATE TABLE new_tbl SELECT * FROM orig_tbl;

MySQL creates new columns for all elements in the SELECT. For example:

mysql> CREATE TABLE test (a INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    ->        PRIMARY KEY (a), KEY(b))
    ->        TYPE=MyISAM SELECT b,c FROM test2;
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I know it works in 4.1 and I think it works in 4.0, but you would need to check.

jdtoronto