I've already read the following answers about the impossibility to alter a column into identity once has been created as a regular int.
Adding an identity to an existing column
How to Alter a table for Identity Specification is identity SQL Server
How to alter column to identity(1,1)
But the thing is I have a table which has been migrated to a new one where the ID was not declared as identity from the beginning, because the old table which was created with an ID identity a long time ago has missing rows due to a purge of historical data. So as far as I know, if I add a new column as identity on my new table, it will automatically create the column sequentially and I need to preserve the IDs from the old table as-is because there is already data linked to these previous IDs.
How can I do transform my ID column from the new table as identity but not sequentially, but with the IDs from the old table?
You could try this approach:
Insert rows with old ID with SET IDENTITY_INSERT <new table> ON. This allows you to insert your own ID.
Reseed the Identity, setting it to the highest ID value +1 with DBCC CHECKIDENT ('<new table>', RESEED, <max ID + 1>). This will allow your Identity to increase from the highest ID and forward.
Something like this in code:
-- Disable auto increment
SET IDENTITY_INSERT <new table> ON
-- <INSERT STUFF HERE>
SET IDENTITY_INSERT <new table> OFF
-- Reseed Identity from max ID
DECLARE #maxval Int
SET #maxval = ISNULL(
(
SELECT
MAX(<identity column>) + 1
FROM <new table>
), 0)
DBCC CHECKIDENT ('<new table>', RESEED, #maxval)
EDIT: This approach requires your ID-column to be an Identity, of course.
If you don't have nulls in the field that you want to copy over from your previous version, you could first figure out what the largest ID is by just doing a max(Id) select. Then using SSMS go add your new field and when you set it as identity, just set the SEED value to something higher than what your current max is so you don't have collisions on new inserts.
I have a process where a temp table is used between a source file, CSV and the production table. The temp table has to match the CSV file columns, there is no PK in this data.
To find a set of rows before and after where the Azure Data Factory was failing, I imported over 2,000,000 rows into a temp table. The process stopped in Azure at 1,500,000 rows.
The error was that an integer or string would be truncated.
This line of code added a PK to the temp table and incremented it:
ALTER TABLE ##FLATFILETEMPBDI ADD ROWNUM INT IDENTITY
That would be the simplest solution to get a row number. I was then able to do this query to find the rows just before and after 1,500,000:
SELECT
ROWNUM
, PARTDESCRIPTION
, LEN(PARTDESCRIPTION) AS LENDESCR
, QUANTITY
, ONORDER
, PRICE
, MANUFACTURERPARTNUMBER
FROM ##FLATFILETEMPBDI
WHERE ROWNUM BETWEEN 1499990 AND 1500005
Works perfectly -- was not planning on it to be that easy, was surprised as anyone to see that the ALTER TABLE with IDENTITY worked to do the numbering for me.
Related
Im trying to update a table I have the same Data but with different ID's so i would like to set the ID of both communs to the lowest ID register for the results.
UPDATE TABLENAME
SET EXAMPLEID = LOWER(EXAMPLEID)
WHERE
TID = TID
AND
KID = KID
AND
STREET = STREET
I'm getting the following error:
Msg 8102, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Cannot update identity column
'EXAMPLEID'
Identity Column is generally used with Primary Key column. In your case if ExampleID is your primary key and also identity Column, You cannot have same ExampleID on two different rows.
Primary Key Column is unique for every row
On the other hand If your column is not PK but Identity Column, then SQL Server does not allow you to update Identity Key Column Value.
But there is a dirty workaround alternative for this (Not Recommended)
You can't update an identity column. You may insert new records with an explicit value using IDENTITY_INSERT, but SQL Server won't let you do an update.
If you really need to do this, the only option you have is to copy the full table temporarily and recreate your final table again with the updated values. This is strongly NOT recommended:
Create a copy of your table, with all related objects (indexes, constraints, etc.), but with no rows (only schema objects).
CREATE TABLE TABLENAME_Mirror (
ExampleID INT IDENTITY,
TID VARCHAR(100),
KID VARCHAR(100),
STREET VARCHAR(100))
Set IDENTITY_INSERT ON on this new table and insert the records with the updated values.
SET IDENTITY_INSERT TABLENAME_Mirror ON
INSERT INTO TABLENAME_Mirror (
ExampleID,
TID,
KID,
STREET)
SELECT
/*Updated values*/
FROM
--....
SET IDENTITY_INSERT TABLENAME_Mirror OFF
Drop the original table and rename the copied one to the original name:
BEGIN TRANSACTION
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.TABLENAME') is not null
DROP TABLE dbo.TABLENAME
EXEC sys.sp_rename
'dbo.TABLENAME_Mirror',
'TABLENAME'
COMMIT
You might need to reseed the identity with a proper value once the rows are inserted, if you want to keep the same seed as before.
In SQL Server, I have created a Table with an ID column that I have made an IDENTITY COLUMN,
EmployeeID int NOT NULL IDENTITY(100,10) PRIMARY KEY
It is my understanding, when I use the IDENTITY feature, it auto increments the EmployeeID. What I don't know/not sure is:
Is that IDENTITY number created, unique?
Does SQL search the entire column in the table to confirm the number created does not already exist?
Can I override that auto increment number manually?
If I did manually override that number, would the number I enter be checked to make sure it is not a duplicate/existing ID number?
Thanks for any help provided.
Is that IDENTITY number created, unique?
Yes, Identity property is unique
Does SQL search the entire column in the table to confirm the number created does not already exist? \
It need not, what this property does is, just incrementing the old value
Can I override that auto increment number manually?
Yes, you can. You have to use SET IDENTITY_INSERT TABLENAME ON
If I did manually override that number, would the number I enter be checked to make sure it is not a duplicate/existing ID number?
No, that won't be taken care by SQL Server, you will have to ensure you have constraints to take care of this
Below is a simple demo to prove that
create table #temp
(
id int identity(1,1)
)
insert into #temp
default values
go 3
select * from #temp--now id column has 3
set identity_insert #temp on
insert into #temp (id)
values(4)
set identity_insert #temp off
select * from #temp--now id column has 4
insert into #temp
default values
go
select * from #temp--now id column has 5,next value from the last highest
Updating info from comments:
Identity column will allow gaps once you reseed them,also you can't update them
I have set some script that inserts data from an XML file into a SQL database. I am getting the following error.
Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'fighterID', table 'MMA Database.dbo.FIGHTERStemp'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails.
I have fighterID set as the primary key and will not allow NULLS. My intention is to have it number each row as they are inserted. I found one answer that advises to modify the column properties to be the identifier. However it will not let me adjust the columns properties without dropping and adding the table again.
I can do that - but what is the SQL syntax to set the identity specification settings? Am I going about this the right way?
It's pretty simple, just set the field with datatype INT (integer) and follow it with keyword IDENTITY. You can include the seed and increment values; e.g. start at 1, increment by 1, or just use the keyword IDENTITY for a 1,1 default.
CREATE TABLE MMA (FighterID INT IDENTITY (1,1), FighterInfo VARCHAR(MAX))
While inserting data into Primary key you can check the previous max id value and then increment it to next value before you insert a new row.
In SQL, you need to drop table before altering its specification. You can do this by taking backup into temp table then drop your main table and then re insert data from temp table.
I am troubleshooting a db (not my forte) that has some tables that are auto incrementing on the id column and some tables are not?
Now all the tables are set as identity and marked to disallow null. I am using SSMS what else can I check or do to get these tables back to auto incrementing?
TIA
Interestingly to me...probably old news to you guys. The issue had to do with existing data. So for example a table that had 100 rows in did NOT have the identity column setup. So I would go in and make it an identity with a seed of 1 incrementing 1. Well the seed was somehow having trouble because there was already 100 rows in there. So for all my tables I had to do a row count and seed the identity from the next row. Now it is working as expected.
Having an IDENTITY column is pretty straightforward for a table, and if you are not seeing the auto incrementing behavior of a column on inserts, then I'd first verify that your column is indeed an IDENTITY column:
use <Your Database Name>;
go
select
name,
is_identity
from sys.columns
where object_id = object_id('<Your Table Name>')
order by column_id;
Substitute <Your Database Nam> and <Your Table Name> for their appropriate values.
The other possibility is that data that "appears" to be non-incrementing could have been pushed out to that with a session that set identity insert and pushed out explicit values.
ALTER TABLE YourTable MODIFY COLUMN YourTable_id int(4) auto_increment
Is there any way of changing the identity seed for an identity column permanently? Using DBCC CHECKIDENT just seems to set the last_value. If the table is truncated all values are reset.
dbcc checkident ('__Test_SeedIdent', reseed, 1000)
select name, seed_value, increment_value, last_value
from sys.identity_columns
where [object_id] = OBJECT_ID('__Test_SeedIdent');
returns
name seed_value increment_value last_value
-------------------------------------------------
idIdent 1 1 1000
I was hoping that some syntax like
alter table dbo.__Test_SeedIdent alter column idIdent [int] identity(1000,1) NOT NULL
would exist.
Is it necessary to create a new column, move the values across, drop the original column and rename the new?
From Books Online:
"To change the original seed value and reseed any existing rows, you must drop the identity column and recreate it specifying the new seed value. When the table contains data, the identity numbers are added to the existing rows with the specified seed and increment values. The order in which the rows are updated is not guaranteed."
MSSQL does not allow you to add or alter an Identity on an existing column via TSQL very easily. You would have to drop the column and re-add it. Needless to say this can play hell with FK relations. You can do it directly in the enterprise manager. However that won't be fun if you have to do this to a LOT of columns.
Is it necessary to create a new
column, move the values across, drop
the original column and rename the
new?
Yup, and don't forget to fix/update all indexes, foreign key relationships, etc. that are tied to that column
You can use DBCC CHECKIDENT('tablename', RESEED, seedvalue)
example: DBCC CHECKIDENT('Customers',RESEED, 1350)
run DBCC CHECKIDENT('Customers') again to check if current seed value was set.
However as mentioned in previous answers this will not change existing values stored in the identity column. It will only change seed value so the next row that is inserted will start with that value. Identity increment remains same (not changed) and can not be changed with DBCC.
"Is it necessary to create a new column, move the values across, drop the original column and rename the new?"
Actually in Enterprise Manager, when you add an ID column to an existing table (or change an INT PK field to an INT PK ID), it does this behind the scene.