[sql] What is the difference between Scope_Identity(), Identity(), @@Identity, and Ident_Current()?

I know Scope_Identity(), Identity(), @@Identity, and Ident_Current() all get the value of the identity column, but I would love to know the difference.

Part of the controversy I'm having is what do they mean by scope as applied to these functions above?

I would also love a simple example of different scenarios of using them?

Good question.

• @@IDENTITY: returns the last identity value generated on your SQL connection (SPID). Most of the time it will be what you want, but sometimes it isn't (like when a trigger is fired in response to an INSERT, and the trigger executes another INSERT statement).

• SCOPE_IDENTITY(): returns the last identity value generated in the current scope (i.e. stored procedure, trigger, function, etc).

• IDENT_CURRENT(): returns the last identity value for a specific table. Don't use this to get the identity value from an INSERT, it's subject to race conditions (i.e. multiple connections inserting rows on the same table).

• IDENTITY(): used when declaring a column in a table as an identity column.

For more reference, see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187342.aspx.

To summarize: if you are inserting rows, and you want to know the value of the identity column for the row you just inserted, always use SCOPE_IDENTITY().

To clarify the problem with @@Identity:

For instance, if you insert a table and that table has triggers doing inserts, @@Identity will return the id from the insert in the trigger (a log_id or something), while scope_identity() will return the id from the insert in the original table.

So if you don't have any triggers, scope_identity() and @@identity will return the same value. If you have triggers, you need to think about what value you'd like.

Here is another good explanation from the book:

As for the difference between SCOPE_IDENTITY and @@IDENTITY, suppose that you have a stored procedure P1 with three statements:
- An INSERT that generates a new identity value
- A call to a stored procedure P2 that also has an INSERT statement that generates a new identity value
- A statement that queries the functions SCOPE_IDENTITY and @@IDENTITY The SCOPE_IDENTITY function will return the value generated by P1 (same session and scope). The @@IDENTITY function will return the value generated by P2 (same session irrespective of scope).

If you understand the difference between scope and session then it will be very easy to understand these methods.

A very nice blog post by Adam Anderson describes this difference:

Session means the current connection that's executing the command.

Scope means the immediate context of a command. Every stored procedure call executes in its own scope, and nested calls execute in a nested scope within the calling procedure's scope. Likewise, a SQL command executed from an application or SSMS executes in its own scope, and if that command fires any triggers, each trigger executes within its own nested scope.

Thus the differences between the three identity retrieval methods are as follows:

@@identity returns the last identity value generated in this session but any scope.

scope_identity() returns the last identity value generated in this session and this scope.

ident_current() returns the last identity value generated for a particular table in any session and any scope.

Scope means the code context that performs the INSERT statement SCOPE_IDENTITY(), as opposed to the global scope of @@IDENTITY.

CREATE TABLE Foo(
  ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),
  Dummy VARCHAR(100)
)

CREATE TABLE FooLog(
  ID INT IDENTITY(2,2),
  LogText VARCHAR(100)
)
go
CREATE TRIGGER InsertFoo ON Foo AFTER INSERT AS
BEGIN
  INSERT INTO FooLog (LogText) VALUES ('inserted Foo')
  INSERT INTO FooLog (LogText) SELECT Dummy FROM inserted
END

INSERT INTO Foo (Dummy) VALUES ('x')
SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY(), @@IDENTITY 

Gives different results.

Scope Identity: Identity of last record added within the stored procedure being executed.

@@Identity: Identity of last record added within the query batch, or as a result of the query e.g. a procedure that performs an insert, the then fires a trigger that then inserts a record will return the identity of the inserted record from the trigger.

IdentCurrent: The last identity allocated for the table.