How can I insert identity manually?

Question

CREATE TABLE masterTbl (
id INT IDENTITY(1,1) CONSTRAINT pk_id PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(100))

INSERT INTO masterTbl VALUES (\'ABC\', \'XYZ\',\'PQR\')

Answer 1

It is possible performing the following steps:

I. Enable identity insert, which will DISABLE SQL Server from automatically inserting values in the table's identity column:

SET IDENTITY_INSERT ON

II. Perform your "manual" insert operation, SPECIFYING all the affected column names:

INSERT INTO masterTbl (id, name)
VALUES (1, 'ABC',
        2, 'XYZ',
        4, 'PQR')

• If you skip listing the column names, SQL Server will popup an error message.

III. When you're done, reenable the auto identity value insertion by disabling the manual insert feature of earlier:

SET IDENTITY_INSERT OFF

IV. You're done!