CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sql-servert-sqlmetadata
Bialecki
Bialecki

Reputation: 31041

How do I determine if a column is an identity column in MSSQL 2000?

I want to do this in code, not with ALT+F1.

Upvotes: 48

Views: 41345

Answers (6)

Sergio Prats
Sergio Prats

Reputation: 1213

In Sql Server 2016 you can check if a field is identity by querying against the sys.all_columns table:

SELECT * from sys.all_columns where object_id = OBJECT_ID('TableName') AND [Name] = 'ColumnName' AND is_identity = 1

Upvotes: 0

KamalDeep
KamalDeep

Reputation: 834

Identity is the value that is used for the very first row loaded into the table.

There is a microsoft article which can provide good knowledge about Identity:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/statements/create-table-transact-sql-identity-property?view=sql-server-2017

Now, there are couple of ways for identifying which column is an identity column in a table:

  • We can use sql query: select columnproperty(object_id('mytable'),'mycolumn','IsIdentity')
  • sp_help tablename

Upvotes: 1

Tschallacka
Tschallacka

Reputation: 28712

As expansion on @Blogbeard's answer

If you like pure query and not inbuilt functions

select col_name(sys.all_objects.object_id, column_id) as id from sys.identity_columns 
join sys.all_objects on sys.identity_columns.object_id = sys.all_objects.object_id
where sys.all_objects.name = 'system_files'

Upvotes: 1

Blorgbeard
Blorgbeard

Reputation: 103437

You can also do it this way:

select columnproperty(object_id('mytable'),'mycolumn','IsIdentity')

Returns 1 if it's an identity, 0 if not.

Upvotes: 95

Luke Bennett
Luke Bennett

Reputation: 32896

Adjust the WHERE clause to suit:

select
    a.name as TableName,
    b.name as IdentityColumn
from
    sysobjects a inner join syscolumns b on a.id = b.id
where
    columnproperty(a.id, b.name, 'isIdentity') = 1
    and objectproperty(a.id, 'isTable') = 1

Upvotes: 7

Patrick McElhaney
Patrick McElhaney

Reputation: 59271

sp_help tablename

In the output look for something like this:

 Identity     Seed     Increment     Not For Replication    
 -----------  -------  ------------  ---------------------- 
 userid       15500    1             0

Upvotes: 26

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