Is it possible to insert into two tables at the same time?

My database contains three tables called Object_Table, Data_Table and Link_Table. The link table just contains two columns, the identity of an object record and an identity of a data record.

I want to copy the data from DATA_TABLE where it is linked to one given object identity and insert corresponding records into Data_Table and Link_Table for a different given object identity.

I can do this by selecting into a table variable and the looping through doing two inserts for each iteration.

Is this the best way to do it?

Edit : I want to avoid a loop for two reason, the first is that I'm lazy and a loop/temp table requires more code, more code means more places to make a mistake and the second reason is a concern about performance.

I can copy all the data in one insert but how do get the link table to link to the new data records where each record has a new id?

Solution

The following sets up the situation I had, using table variables.

DECLARE @Object_Table TABLE
(
    Id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY
)

DECLARE @Link_Table TABLE
(
    ObjectId INT NOT NULL,
    DataId INT NOT NULL
)

DECLARE @Data_Table TABLE
(
    Id INT NOT NULL Identity(1,1),
    Data VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
)

-- create two objects '1' and '2'
INSERT INTO @Object_Table (Id) VALUES (1)
INSERT INTO @Object_Table (Id) VALUES (2)

-- create some data
INSERT INTO @Data_Table (Data) VALUES ('Data One')
INSERT INTO @Data_Table (Data) VALUES ('Data Two')

-- link all data to first object
INSERT INTO @Link_Table (ObjectId, DataId)
SELECT Objects.Id, Data.Id
FROM @Object_Table AS Objects, @Data_Table AS Data
WHERE Objects.Id = 1

Thanks to another answer that pointed me towards the OUTPUT clause I can demonstrate a solution:

-- now I want to copy the data from from object 1 to object 2 without looping
INSERT INTO @Data_Table (Data)
OUTPUT 2, INSERTED.Id INTO @Link_Table (ObjectId, DataId)
SELECT Data.Data
FROM @Data_Table AS Data INNER JOIN @Link_Table AS Link ON Data.Id = Link.DataId
                INNER JOIN @Object_Table AS Objects ON Link.ObjectId = Objects.Id 
WHERE Objects.Id = 1

It turns out however that it is not that simple in real life because of the following error

the OUTPUT INTO clause cannot be on either side of a (primary key, foreign key) relationship

I can still OUTPUT INTO a temp table and then finish with normal insert. So I can avoid my loop but I cannot avoid the temp table.