What is the difference between Scope_Identity(), Identity(), @@Identity, and Ident_Current?

Question

I know Scope_Identity(), Identity(), @@Identity, and Ident_Current all get the value of the identity column, but i would love to know the difference.

Part of the controversy i'm having is what do they mean by scope as applied to these functions above?

I would also love a simple example of different scenarios of using them?

Answer 1

Good question.

• @@IDENTITY: returns the last identity value generated on your SQL connection (SPID). Most of the time it will be what you want, but sometimes it isn't (like when a trigger is fired in response to an INSERT, and the trigger executes another INSERT statement).

• SCOPE_IDENTITY(): returns the last identity value generated in the current scope (i.e. stored procedure, trigger, function, etc).

• IDENT_CURRENT(): returns the last identity value for a specific table. Don't use this to get the identity value from an INSERT, it's subject to race conditions (i.e. multiple connections inserting rows on the same table).

• IDENTITY(): used when declaring a column in a table as an identity column.

For more reference, see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187342.aspx.

To summarize: if you are inserting rows, and you want to know the value of the identity column for the row you just inserted, always use SCOPE_IDENTITY().

Answer 2

Scope Identity - Identity of last record added within the stored procedure being executed.

@@Identity - Identity of last record added within the query batch, or as a result of the query e.g. a procedure that performs an insert, the then fires a trigger that then inserts a record will return the identity of the inserted record from the trigger.

IdentCurrent - The last identity allocated for the table

Answer 3

To clarify the problem with @@Identity:

For instance, if you insert a table and that table has triggers doing inserts, @@Identity will return the id from the insert in the trigger (a log_id or something), while scope_identity() will return the id from the insert in the original table.

So if you don't have any triggers, scope_identity() and @@identity will return the same value. If you have triggers, you need to think about what value you'd like.

Answer 4

• The @@identity function returns the last identity created in the same session.
• The scope_identity() function returns the last identity created in the same session and the same scope.
• The ident_current(name) returns the last identity created for a specific table or view in any session.
• The identity() function is not used to get an identity, it's used to create an identity in a select...into query.

The session is the database connection. The scope is the current query or the current stored procedure.

A situation where the scope_identity() and the @@identity functions differ, is if you have a trigger on the table. If you have a query that inserts a record, causing the trigger to insert another record somewhere, the scope_identity() function will return the identity created by the query, while the @@identity function will return the identity created by the trigger.

So, normally you would use the scope_identity() function.

Answer 5

"Scope" means the code context that performs the INSERT statement (SCOPE_IDENTITY()), as opposed to the global scope of @@IDENTITY.

CREATE TABLE Foo(
  ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),
  Dummy VARCHAR(100)
)

CREATE TABLE FooLog(
  ID INT IDENTITY(2,2),
  LogText VARCHAR(100)
)

CREATE TRIGGER InsertFoo ON Foo AFTER INSERT AS
BEGIN
  INSERT INTO FooLog (LogText) VALUES ('inserted Foo')
  INSERT INTO FooLog (LogText) SELECT Dummy FROM inserted
END

INSERT INTO Log (Dummy) VALUES ('x')
SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY(), @@IDENTITY

gives different results