SQL Server: Return Newly Inserted Row

Whenever you insert a new row in a SQL Server table that contains default values, you may want to return the newly inserted row to the user, along with the default value generated. However while doing a plain INSERT statement, all you get is the total number of rows affected.

Here’s an example:



Here we are using the NEWID() to generate a unique customer number in each row. However as you can see, the user does not get to see the default ID that got generated for the newly inserted rows. In order to get back the row values that were inserted, use the OUTPUT clause of the INSERT statement as shown here:

INSERT INTO #TT (Name, AreaCode)
OUTPUT INSERTED.ID, INSERTED.Name, INSERTED.AreaCode
SELECT 'Suprotim', 2355 UNION ALL
SELECT 'Anush', 2388

and this time you get to see the newly inserted rows:



As you can see, we have added the OUTPUT clause right after the INSERT statement. The rows inserted into the table are captured in the virtual table INSERTED and returned back as a result set.

In case you are wondering, yes it is possible to capture the result set in a table or table variable. Assuming there is a Table variable called @TempTbl, just use the following:

INSERT INTO #TT (Name, AreaCode)
OUTPUT INSERTED.ID, INSERTED.Name, INSERTED.AreaCode
INTO @TempTbl
SELECT 'Suprotim', 2355 UNION ALL
SELECT 'Anush', 2388

and now you can do further processing on this data using @TempTbl.

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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