ad 1) CREATE TABLE AS SELECT guarantees that the target table is empty. INSERT INTO SELECT FROM is a common pattern for "imported transactions" (e.g from a csv file in an external format) that need working on to integrate into the schema. ad 2) Any benefit ist limited to target tables that have exactly one index, be it the PRIMARY KEY of a WITHOUT ROWID table, the sole UNIQUE constraint of a ROWID table or the single UNIQUE INDEX on a ROWID table; any additional index will be unordered load ad 3) I don't think INSERT INTO SELECT FROM ORDER BY is a common figure because SQL is based on (unordered) sets as opposed to (ordered) permutations and set operations should be independent of the implementation dependent order of processing. Also, since the question is "initially populating from external source", the source table will have to be a virtual table that knows and reports (via the xBestIndex method) the pre-existing order of the records