"INSERT INTO" Statements with INDENTITY Columns

This section describes what will happen if you try to insert rows with values for INDENTITY columns.

An INDENTITY column is a special column in a table that defined to have it value automatically added with a sequence number generator. An INDENTITY column is normally used for the primary key column in a table.

For example, we can add a new column, CustomID, into my Customer table and make it as an INDENTITY column.

herong> sqlcmd -S localhost\SQLEXPRESS -E

1> use AdventureWorks2014
2> go
1> alter table Herong.Customer add CustomerID int IDENTITY
2> go

If you try to add values to an INDENTITY column in INSERT statements, you will get an error as shown in the sample program below:

/* InsertIdentity.java
 * Copyright (c) HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
import java.sql.*;
public class InsertIdentity {
  public static void main(String [] args) {
    Connection con = null;
    try {

      con = DriverManager.getConnection(
          "jdbc:sqlserver://localhost\\SQLEXPRESS;"
        + "user=herong;password=T0pSecret;"
        + "database=AdventureWorks2019");
      Statement sta = con.createStatement();

// insert a single row
      int count = sta.executeUpdate(
        "INSERT INTO Herong.Customer"
        + " (CustomerID, FirstName, LastName, ModifiedDate)"
        + " VALUES (1001, 'Herong', 'Yang', '2007-04-01')");
      System.out.println("Number of rows inserted: "+count);

      sta.close();
      con.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

Here is the error message from this program:

herong> java -cp .;mssql-jdbc-9.4.1.jre16.jar InsertIdentity

com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerException:
Cannot insert explicit value for identity column
in table 'Customer' when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) Introduction

 JDK (Java SE) Installation

 Installing and Running Java DB - Derby

 Derby (Java DB) JDBC Driver

 Derby (Java DB) JDBC DataSource Objects

 Java DB (Derby) - DML Statements

 Java DB (Derby) - ResultSet Objects of Queries

 Java DB (Derby) - PreparedStatement

 MySQL Installation on Windows

 MySQL JDBC Driver (MySQL Connector/J)

 MySQL - PreparedStatement

 MySQL - Reference Implementation of JdbcRowSet

 MySQL - JBDC CallableStatement

 MySQL CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 MySQL BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 Oracle Express Edition Installation on Windows

 Oracle JDBC Drivers

 Oracle - Reference Implementation of JdbcRowSet

 Oracle - PreparedStatement

 Oracle - JBDC CallableStatement

 Oracle CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 Oracle BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition

 Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - Query Statements and Result Sets

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DatabaseMetaData Object

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DDL Statements

Microsoft JDBC Driver - DML Statements

 "SELECT ... INTO" Statements

 "INSERT INTO" Statements

"INSERT INTO" Statements with INDENTITY Columns

 "UPDATE" Statements

 "DELETE FROM" Statements

 SQL Server - PreparedStatement

 SQL Server CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 SQL Server BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - Flat Text Files

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS Access

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS SQL Server

 Summary of JDBC Drivers and Database Servers

 Using Connection Pool with JDBC

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB