Getting the next ID without inserting a row

Question

Is it possible in SQL (SQL Server) to retrieve the next ID (integer) from an identity column in a table before, and without actually, inserting a row? This is not necessarily th

Answer 1

This is a little bit strange but it will work:

If you want to know the next value, start by getting the greatest value plus one:

SELECT max(id) FROM yourtable

To make this work, you'll need to reset the identity on insert:

DECLARE @value INTEGER

SELECT @value = max(id) + 1 FROM yourtable

DBCC CHECKIDENT (yourtable, reseed, @value)

INSERT INTO yourtable ...

Not exactly an elegant solution but I haven't had my coffee yet ;-)

(This also assumes that there is nothing done to the table by your process or any other process between the first and second blocks of code).