SELECT with numbers

[gurumeditation]

I want to use the INSERT ... SELECT syntax to rapidly add data into a table, using some data from another table. In my SELECT statement I want to have a constant integer as first field and a field of the FROM table as second. So I tried:
INSERT INTO table1 (filed1,field2) SELECT 1,field3 FROM table2;
but I had some strange behaviour!
When trying just the SELECT statement it gives me:
SELECT 1,field3 FROM table2
1, xxx
2, yyy
3, zzz
and so on.
If I try the following, it gives me what I want:
SELECT 10,field3 FROM table3
10, xxx
10, yyy
10, zzz
Has anyone an idea why it does not behave the same way? Quotes are not helping, the only workaround was to add a '+' sign before 1!

[Joel]

What are you even trying to do?

[DigitalRice]

why don't you do like this:
INSERT INTO table1 (field1, field2) SELECT field4, field3 FROM table2 WHERE field4 = 1;

[WiZARD]

To you gurumeditation need read more about sintax of MySQL and PHP