I have a primary key that I don't want to auto increment (for various reasons) and so I'm looking for a way to simply increment that field when I INSERT. By simply, I mean without stored procedures and without triggers, so just a series of SQL commands (preferably one command).
Here is what I have tried thus far:
BEGIN TRAN
INSERT INTO Table1(id, data_field)
VALUES ( (SELECT (MAX(id) + 1) FROM Table1), '[blob of data]');
COMMIT TRAN;
* Data abstracted to use generic names and identifiers
However, when executed, the command errors, saying that
"Subqueries are not allowed in this
context. only scalar expressions are
allowed"
So, how can I do this/what am I doing wrong?
EDIT: Since it was pointed out as a consideration, the table to be inserted into is guaranteed to have at least 1 row already.
Best Answer
You understand that you will have collisions right?
you need to do something like this and this might cause deadlocks so be very sure what you are trying to accomplish here
To explain the collision thing, I have provided some code
first create this table and insert one row
Now open up two query windows and run this at the same time
You will see a bunch of these
Server: Msg 2627, Level 14, State 1, Line 7 Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint 'PK__Table1__3213E83F2962141D'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'dbo.Table1'. The statement has been terminated.