Multiple OUTPUT clauses in MERGE/INSERT/DELETE SQL commands?

Question

I have a T-SQL script that implements some synchronization logic using OUTPUT clause in MERGEs and INSERTs.

Now I

Answer 1

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I just ran into this issue and used a solution that's practical rather than technical, and may or may not be obvious.

As already discussed, MERGE isn't designed to do this. The INSERT_INTO...EXEC solution is a good workaround, but the particular stored procedure on which I'm working is already complex enough.

So to keep things simple for the next guy who has to work on this code, I just used two MERGE statements...one that does the inserting and one that does the updating. After all, there's no law that says you have to use only one. I added an "action" column to the logging table, into which I have the MERGE statement insert either "Insert" or "Update" depending on what it's doing.

Performance doesn't take enough of a hit to worry about, especially since this isn't a user process.

TIP: Do the update first, and the insert second. Otherwise, when you do the first load, you'll get one insert record and one update record for every row you import.