Finding identity column in a Table

Question

When trying to run an insert statement I get the following error:

Msg 544, Level 16, State 1, Line 3 Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table 'IV00101' when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF.

Is there a simple way to find what identity column I am trying to insert into that is causing this error?

Problem is my insert statement has 84 values I am inserting into.

I am using Microsoft SQL 2008

Answer 1

SELECT name 
  FROM sys.columns 
  WHERE [object_id] = OBJECT_ID('dbo.IV00101') 
  AND is_identity = 1;

Answer 2

Your question is a bit unclear, but I'll take a stab at it:

It sounds like the identity column is auto-incrementing, and you're trying to insert the value.

You can use this query to get the identity column for all tables:

select TABLE_NAME + '.' + COLUMN_NAME, TABLE_NAME
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
where TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo'
and COLUMNPROPERTY(object_id(TABLE_NAME), COLUMN_NAME, 'IsIdentity') = 1
order by TABLE_NAME 

Answer 3

You can query the system objects info to find out which columns are identity

SELECT c.name
FROM
    sys.columns c 
    JOIN sys.objects o  ON c.object_id = o.object_id
WHERE 
    o.name = 'TABLE_NAME'   -- replace with table nae 
    AND c.is_identity = 1

Answer 4

select name 
from sys.identity_columns 
where [object_id] = object_id('your_table_here')

Answer 5

If your table has a primary key, the identity column will probably be the primary key, as already mentioned in James Johnson's answer .

If it's not, you could just let SQL Server Management Studio create the complete CREATE TABLE script for the table, and search for the word IDENTITY inside it.

In my opinion, this is the easiest and fastest way to to this (and sufficient for a one-time action).

---

EDIT:

@Aaron Bertrand:
I know that primary key and identity are two different concepts.
But, honestly: of all the tables with an identity column that you ever saw, how many did you see where the identity column was not the primary key?
You are saying yourself that this is common practice.

So, what I'm saying is this:
Yes, finding the primary key in SSMS is IMO easier than finding the identity column.
(honestly: I don't know any better way to find the identity column using SSMS, that's why I suggested the way I described above)
--> if finding the primary key also means finding the identity in 95% of all cases, why not try to use the easy/fast way (find the primary key) first?
If the primary key is not the identity column, you can still search for the identity column using the "correct" way from your answer (which is without any doubt the correct way, but not as easy as finding the primary key in the UI).

Answer 6

您正尝试覆盖默认标识，为此，您需要在查询顶部添加此标识

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [ database_name . [ schema_name ] . ] table { ON | OFF }