how to write an insert query in Doctrine - doctrine-orm

Question

How do I create an insert query in Doctrine that will perform the same function as the following SQL query:
INSERT INTO target (tgt_col1, tgt_col2)
SELECT 'flag' as marker, src_col2 FROM source
WHERE src_col1='mycriteria'

Answer 1

Doctrine documentation says:
If you want to execute DELETE, UPDATE or INSERT statements the Native
SQL API cannot be used and will probably throw errors. Use
EntityManager#getConnection() to access the native database connection
and call the executeUpdate() method for these queries.
Examples
// Get entity manager from your context.
$em = $this->getEntityManager();
/**
* 1. Raw query
*/
$query1 = "
INSERT INTO target (tgt_col1, tgt_col2)
SELECT 'flag' as marker, src_col2 FROM source
WHERE src_col1='mycriteria'
";
$affectedRows1 = $em->getConnection()->executeUpdate($query1);
/**
* 2. Query using class metadata.
*/
$metadata = $em->getClassMetadata(Your\NameSpace\Entity\Target::class);
$tableName = $metadata->getTableName();
$niceTitle = $metadata->getColumnName('niceTitle');
$bigDescription = $metadata->getColumnName('bigDescription');
$metadata2 = $em->getClassMetadata(Your\NameSpace\Entity\Source::class);
$table2Name = $metadata2->getTableName();
$smallDescription = $metadata2->getColumnName('smallDescription');
$query2 = "
INSERT INTO $tableName ($niceTitle, $bigDescription)
SELECT 'hardcoded title', $smallDescription FROM $table2Name
WHERE $niceTitle = 'mycriteria'
";
$affectedRows2 = $em->getConnection()->executeUpdate($query2);

Answer 2

I'm still not convinced it's the right approach you are taking but if you really need an SQL query to be run for whatever reason you can do that in Doctrine with $entityManager->createNativeQuery(); function:
http://doctrine-orm.readthedocs.org/en/latest/reference/native-sql.html
Doctrine isn't a tool for query manipulation. The whole idea is to work on Entity level, not the SQL level (tables, etc). Doctrine's 2 QueryBuilder doesn't even support INSERT operations via DQL.
A small snippet of pseudo code below to illustrate how it can be done in "Doctrine's way":
$qb = $entityManager->createQueryBuilder();
$qb->select('s')
->from('\Foo\Source\Entity', 's')
->where('s.col1 = :col1')
->setParameter('col1', 'mycriteria');
$sourceEntities = $qb->getQuery()->getResult();
foreach($sourceEntities as $sourceEntity) {
$targetEntity = new \Foo\Target\Entity();
$targetEntity->col1 = $sourceEntity->col1;
$targetEntity->col2 = $sourceEntity->col2;
$entityManager->persist($targetEntity);
}
$entityManager->flush();