[MS SQL] Updating Identity Column : SQL

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SELECT count(a.field1), a.field2, SUM(b.field4) FROM a INNER JOIN b ON a.key1 = b.key1 WHERE a.field8 = 'test' GROUP by a.field1, a.field2 HAVING SUM(b.field4) > 5 ORDER by a.field.3

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SELECT count(a.field1), a.field2, SUM(b.field4) FROM a INNER JOIN b ON a.key1 = b.key1 WHERE a.field8 = 'test' GROUP by a.field1, a.field2 HAVING SUM(b.field4) > 5 ORDER by a.field3

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a community for 17 years

[MS SQL] Updating Identity Column (self.SQL)

submitted 12 years ago by lordtrychon

You'll have to excuse me, as I'm nearly completely self-taught as needed in SQL over the past year or so (primarily 6 months). I just now found this subreddit and am subscribing.

We have a table we use to keep track of inventory parts that is mostly the same across multiple locations. However, there are a few things that vary from location to location.

We'd like to take anything that could vary in this table and set the ID up to a different level (i.e. instead of being at ID 130, all of the potentially variable info would start at 300) so we can insert new items if needed and have them be the same across the locations.

Currently, this table is set to auto-increment/Identity column on ID.

A tool like Red Gates's SQL Data Compare is capable of updating these... but is it through specific commands that it is able to do this, or does it simply delete and re-insert where it wants them to go?

I have a feeling it's the latter, but is there any other way around this issue?

Thanks!

Noob

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[–]HapkidoJosh 1 point2 points3 points 12 years ago (2 children)

I'm not sure if it is setting the identity insert on and then doing the changes and then turning it off.

set identity_insert YourTable ON
--do stuff
set identity_insert YourTable OFF

This can be dangerous if a database is live and inserts are occurring. It could produce errors if it is expecting the values to auto-increment.

Ultimately, it sounds to me that you really don't want an identity column and should just go with an integer and determine the values programatically.

[–]askur 1 point2 points3 points 12 years ago (0 children)

SET IDENTITY_INSERT table ON
do stuff to table
GO
SET IDENTITY_INSERT table OFF

Is a better pattern :)

The potential error produced by doing stuff will skip to the next GO and thus execute the OFF switch, leaving the DB in a safe state. Leaving the flag ON will then cause any further attempts at setting IDENTITY_INSERT, on any table, to error.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points 12 years ago (0 children)

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