Auto-increment primary key in SQL tables

Question

Using Sql Express Management Studio 2008 GUI  not with coding   how can I make a primary key auto-incremented   Let me explain  there is a table which has a column named  id  and the items of this column are set to be primary keys  I want to make this column auto-incremented  but how   Cheers

User · Answer

I think there is a way to do it at definition stage like this

create table employee( id int identity, name varchar(50), primary key(id) ).. I am trying to see if there is a way to alter an existing table and make the column as Identity which does not look possible theoretically (as the existing values might need modification)

User · Answer

for those who are having the issue of it still not letting you save once it is changed according to answer below  do the following   tools -  options -  designers -  Table and Database Designers -  uncheck  prevent saving changes that require table re-creation  box -  OK  and try to save as it should work now

User · Answer

Presumably you are in the design of the table  If not  right click the table name -  Design    Click the required column  In  Column properties   at the bottom   scroll to the  Identity Specification  section  expand it  then toggle   Is Identity   to  Yes

User · Answer

Although the following is not way to do it in GUI but you can get autoincrementing simply using the IDENTITY datatype start  increment    CREATE TABLE  dbo   TableName       id int IDENTITY 1 1  PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL     name varchar 20        the insert statement should list all columns except the id column  it will be filled with autoincremented value    INSERT INTO  dbo   TableName   name  VALUES   alpha    INSERT INTO  dbo   TableName   name  VALUES   beta      and the result of  SELECT id  name FROM  dbo   TableName     will be  id    name -------------------------- 1     alpha 2     beta

User · Answer

I don t have Express Management Studio on this machine  so I m going based on memory   I think you need to set the column as  IDENTITY   and there should be a     under properties where you can expand  and set auto-increment to true

User · Answer

Right-click on the table in SSMS   Design  it  and click on the id column   In the properties  set the identity to be seeded   e g  1 and to have increment of 1 - save and you re done

[sql-server-2008] Auto-increment primary key in SQL tables

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