Sql – Set IDENTITY_INSERT OFF for all tables

sqlsql server

I have a script which creates an entire database and inserts all records to a few dozen tables.
It works great, unless there is some issue during the processing, and a table gets left with IDENTITY_INSERT ON, when the script fails during insertion and before it can be set to OFF again.

When this happens, the script automatically fails when attempting to run it again, with the error "IDENTITY_INSERT is already ON for table xx" as we go into the insertion for the first table.

As a failsafe I would like to make sure that IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF for all tables, before running the rest of the processing in the setup script.

As an alternative, we could perhaps close the MS SQL connection and open it again, which, as I understand it, would clear all IDENTITY_INSERT values for the connection session.

What's the best way to do this, and prevent the "already on" errors?

Best Answer

Dynamic SQL:

select 'set identity_insert ['+s.name+'].['+o.name+'] off'
from sys.objects o
inner join sys.schemas s on s.schema_id=o.schema_id
where o.[type]='U'
and exists(select 1 from sys.columns where object_id=o.object_id and is_identity=1)

Then copy & paste the resulting SQL into another query window and run

Related Solutions

Sql – Get list of all tables in Oracle

SELECT owner, table_name
  FROM dba_tables

This is assuming that you have access to the DBA_TABLES data dictionary view. If you do not have those privileges but need them, you can request that the DBA explicitly grants you privileges on that table, or, that the DBA grants you the SELECT ANY DICTIONARY privilege or the SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE role (either of which would allow you to query any data dictionary table). Of course, you may want to exclude certain schemas like SYS and SYSTEM which have large numbers of Oracle tables that you probably don't care about.

Alternatively, if you do not have access to DBA_TABLES, you can see all the tables that your account has access to through the ALL_TABLES view:

SELECT owner, table_name
  FROM all_tables

Although, that may be a subset of the tables available in the database (ALL_TABLES shows you the information for all the tables that your user has been granted access to).

If you are only concerned with the tables that you own, not those that you have access to, you could use USER_TABLES:

SELECT table_name
  FROM user_tables

Since USER_TABLES only has information about the tables that you own, it does not have an OWNER column – the owner, by definition, is you.

Oracle also has a number of legacy data dictionary views-- TAB, DICT, TABS, and CAT for example-- that could be used. In general, I would not suggest using these legacy views unless you absolutely need to backport your scripts to Oracle 6. Oracle has not changed these views in a long time so they often have problems with newer types of objects. For example, the TAB and CAT views both show information about tables that are in the user's recycle bin while the [DBA|ALL|USER]_TABLES views all filter those out. CAT also shows information about materialized view logs with a TABLE_TYPE of "TABLE" which is unlikely to be what you really want. DICT combines tables and synonyms and doesn't tell you who owns the object.

Sql – Turn off constraints temporarily (MS SQL)

-- Disable the constraints on a table called tableName:
ALTER TABLE tableName NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL

-- Re-enable the constraints on a table called tableName:
ALTER TABLE tableName WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL
---------------------------------------------------------

-- Disable constraints for all tables in the database:
EXEC sp_msforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL'

-- Re-enable constraints for all tables in the database:
EXEC sp_msforeachtable 'ALTER TABLE ? WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL'
---------------------------------------------------------

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Sql – Get list of all tables in Oracle

Sql – Turn off constraints temporarily (MS SQL)

Related Topic