I have a primary key set up to auto increment.
I am doing multiple queries and I need to retrieve that primary key value to use as a foreign key in another table (IsIdentity = TRUE
).
Is there any elegant way to get back the primary key value when I do an insert query? Right now I am requerying and getting the highest value in that column which seems really hacky.
Any suggestions?
insert into YourTable values (...)
get the new PK with scope_identity()
select scope_identity()
If you are using SQL Server 2005 or later, you can use the OUTPUT clause.
create table T(
pk int identity primary key,
dat varchar(20)
);
go
insert into T
output inserted.pk
values ('new item');
go
drop table T;
The output can be directed to a table as well as to the client. For example:
create table T(
pk int identity primary key,
dat varchar(20)
);
create table U(
i int identity(1001,1) primary key,
T_pk int not null,
d datetime
);
go
insert into T
output inserted.pk, getdate()
into U(T_pk,d)
values ('new item'), ('newer item');
go
select * from T;
select * from U;
go
drop table T, U;
Beginning with SQL Server 2008, you can use "composable DML" for more possibilities.
INSERT INTO YourTable (1, 2, etc.)
OUTPUT inserted.yourIDcolumn
VALUES (value1, value2, value...)
Note: This is for MS SQL 2005 and greater
SCOPE_IDENTITY() is probably what you want. It returns the ID of the last record inserted by the same code context in which it executes.
IDENT_CURRENT('tablename') is subject to concurrency issues. That is, there's no guarantee that another record won't be inserted between the INSERT and the call to IDENT_CURRENT.
I must confess, I'm not sure to what source of amazement the VillageIdiot's outburst refers, but I myself am quite astonished that this question does not appear to be a duplicate at all.
holy crap!!!
just call SCOPE_IDENTITY()
function:
insert into your_talble(col1,col2) values('blah','more blah')
select scope_identity()
because selecting highest value will return error if any other statement make an insert. the function scope_identity()
returns the identity created in current context (that is by your statement)
You should use scope_identity(). And I recommend to wrap insert statement and scope_identity() into transaction.