How do you check if IDENTITY_INSERT is set to ON or OFF in SQL Server?

Question

I\'ve searched for this, but threads in which it appeared tended to have answers from people who didn\'t understand the question.

Take the following syntax:

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Answer 1

If you want to know about the session variable... Good question, but I cant see where this information would be usefull. In normal execution to check a normal table response to an insert, this should work!

-- If you only want to know if there is identity insert on a given table:

select is_identity
from sys.columns
where object_id = OBJECT_ID('MyTable', 'U') and name = 'column_Name'

-- Or... Use this if you want to execute something depending on the result:

if exists (select *
from sys.columns
where object_id = OBJECT_ID('MyTable', 'U') and is_identity = 1)
... your code considering identity insert
else
... code that should not run with identity insert

Have fun!

Answer 2

You can discover whether or not identity_insert is on, and if so for what table using the code below.

declare @tableWithIdentity varchar(max) = '';
SET IDENTITY_INSERT ExampleTable ON

begin try
  create table #identityCheck (id int identity(1,1))
  SET IDENTITY_INSERT #identityCheck ON
  drop table #identityCheck
end try
begin catch
  declare @msg varchar(max) = error_message()
  set @tableWithIdentity= @msg;
  set @tableWithIdentity = 
  SUBSTRING(@tableWithIdentity,charindex('''',@tableWithIdentity,1)+1, 10000)

  set @tableWithIdentity = SUBSTRING(@tableWithIdentity,1, charindex('''',@tableWithIdentity,1)-1)

  print @msg;
  drop table #identityCheck
end catch

if @tableWithIdentity<>''
begin
  print ('Name of table with Identity_Insert set to ON: ' + @tableWithIdentity)
end
else
begin
  print 'No table currently has Identity Insert Set to ON'
end