Tag Archives: #TSQL

Articles on T-SQL. This can be a script or a syntax element

#0416 – SQL Server – Msg 8101 – Use column lists when working with IDENTITY columns

I have often written about IDENTITY columns on my blog. Identity columns, most commonly used to implement auto-increment keys, have been around for more than a decade now. Yet, I often see teams run into interesting use cases especially in cases where data is being migrated from one system to another.

Today’s post is based on one such incident that came to my attention.

The team was trying to migrate data from one table to another as part of an exercise to change the database structure for more efficiency. When moving the data from one table to another, they were using the option (SET IDENTITY_INSERT ON) in order to explicitly insert values into the Identity column. However, they were running into an error.

Msg 8101, Level 16, State 1, Line 24
An explicit value for the identity column in table 'dbo.tIdentity' can only be specified when a column list is used and IDENTITY_INSERT is ON.

Here is a simulation of what they were doing:

USE tempdb;
GO
SET NOCOUNT ON;
--Prepare the environment
--   Create a table, and add some test data into it
--Safety Check
IF OBJECT_ID('tIdentity','U') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TABLE dbo.tIdentity;
GO
--Create a table
CREATE TABLE dbo.tIdentity (IdentityId INT IDENTITY(1,1),
                            IdentityValue VARCHAR(10)
                           );
GO
--Turn Explicit IDENTITY_INSERT ON and insert duplicate IDENTITY values
SET IDENTITY_INSERT dbo.tIdentity ON;
GO
--NOTICE: No column list has been supplied in the INSERT
INSERT INTO dbo.tIdentity
VALUES (1, 'One'),
       (2, 'Two');
GO

--RESULTS
--Msg 8101, Level 16, State 1, Line 24
--An explicit value for the identity column in table 'dbo.tIdentity' can only be pecified when a column list is used and IDENTITY_INSERT is ON.

The Solution

Let’s re-read the error. It clearly gives an indication of what the issue is – if we need to insert an explicit value into Identity columns, we need to explicitly use column lists in our insert statements, as shown below.

USE tempdb;
GO
SET NOCOUNT ON;
--Prepare the environment
--Create a table, and add some test data into it
--Safety Check
IF OBJECT_ID('tIdentity','U') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TABLE dbo.tIdentity;
GO

--Create a table
CREATE TABLE dbo.tIdentity (IdentityId INT IDENTITY(1,1),
                            IdentityValue VARCHAR(10)
                           );
GO

--Turn Explicit IDENTITY_INSERT ON and insert duplicate IDENTITY values
SET IDENTITY_INSERT dbo.tIdentity ON;
GO

--NOTE: Column list has been supplied in the INSERT,
--      so, no errors will be encountered    
INSERT INTO dbo.tIdentity ([IdentityId], [IdentityValue])
VALUES (1, 'One'),
       (2, 'Two');
GO

--Confirm that data has been inserted
SELECT IdentityId,
       IdentityValue
FROM dbo.tIdentity;
GO

--Now that data has been inserted, turn OFF IDENTITY_INSERT
SET IDENTITY_INSERT dbo.tIdentity OFF;
GO

-----------------------------------------------------------------
--RESULTS
----------
--IdentityId  IdentityValue
--1           One
--2           Two
 -----------------------------------------------------------------

Hope you will find this helpful.

Untill we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

#0415 – SQL Server – Performance Tuning – Use STRING_AGG to generate comma separated strings

Advantages of STRING_AGG:

Can be used just like any other aggregate function in a query
Can work with any user supplied separator – doesn’t necessarily have to be a comma
No manual step required – Separators are not added at the end of the concatenated string
STRING_AGG() is significantly faster than using XML based methods
Can be used with any compatibility level as long as the version is SQL Server 2017 (or higher) and Azure SQL database

Here’s an example of how STRING_AGG can be used with any separator:

 --WARNING: THIS SCRIPT IS PROVIDED AS-IS AND WITHOUT
 --         WARRANTY.
 --         FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY       
 --Step 01: Generate Temp table to store source data
 DECLARE @NamesTable TABLE ([Id]   INT, 
                            [Name] NVARCHAR(50)
                           );
 --Step 02: Generate test data
 INSERT INTO @NamesTable
 VALUES (1, 'A'),
        (2, 'D'),
        (2, 'C'),
        (3, 'E'),
        (3, 'H'),
        (3, 'G');
 --Step 03: Using STRING_AGG to generate comma-separated strings
 SELECT STRING_AGG(tbl.Name, '-*-') AS [CustomSeparatorString]
 FROM @NamesTable AS tbl;
 GO
 /RESULTS**
 CustomSeparatorString
 A--D--C--E--H--G /

A minor challenge

As with every new feature, there may be a small usability challenge with STRING_AGG. One cannot use keywords like DISTINCT to ensure that only distinct values are used for generating the comma-separated string. There is however a Azure feedback item open where you can exercise your vote if you feel this feature is useful.

#0410 – SQL Server – Dividing a TimeSpan by an Integer to find average time per execution

1 Reply

I recently encountered an interesting question on the forums the other day. The question was how to determine the average time taken by a single execution of the report provided we know how many times the report ran and the total time taken for all those executions.

The challenge is that the total time taken for all the report executions is a timespan value (datatype TIME in SQL Server). A TIME value cannot be divided by an INTEGER. If we try to do that, we run into an error – an operand clash.

USE [tempdb];
GO
DECLARE @timeSpan TIME = '03:18:20';
DECLARE @numberOfExecutions INT = 99;

SELECT @timeSpan/@numberOfExecutions;
GO

Msg 206, Level 16, State 2, Line 6
Operand type clash: time is incompatible with int

The solution is to realize that a timespan/TIME value is ultimately the number of seconds passed from a given instant. Once the timespan is converted to the appropriate unit (number of seconds), dividing by the number of executions should be quite simple.

Here’s the working example:

USE [tempdb];
GO
DECLARE @timeSpan TIME = '03:18:20';
DECLARE @numberOfExecutions INT = 99;

SELECT @timeSpan AS TotalActiveTime,
       DATEDIFF(SECOND,'1900-01-01 00:00:00.000',CAST(@timeSpan AS DATETIME)) AS TotalExecutionTimeInSeconds,
       DATEDIFF(SECOND,'1900-01-01 00:00:00.000',CAST(@timeSpan AS DATETIME))/(@numberOfExecutions * 1.0) AS TimePerExecution;
GO

/* RESULTS
TotalActiveTime  TotalExecutionTimeInSeconds TimePerExecution   
---------------- --------------------------- -------------------
03:18:20.0000000 11900                       120.20202020202020
*/

I trust this simple thought will help in resolving a business problem someday.

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

#0409 – SQL Server – Code Blocks – Equivalent of #region…#endregion

1 Reply

I was recently participating in a forum and came across an interesting question. What attracted my attention was that the person was trying to keep their T-SQL code clean and readable (which in itself is a rare sight).

The person was trying to group their T-SQL code into regions. In the world of application development technologies (e.g. C#) we would typically use the #region….#endregion combination. However, it does not work with T-SQL because the hash (#) is used to define temporary tables.

In T-SQL, the basic control-of-flow statements that allow you to group the code are the BEGIN…END keywords. The BEGIN…END keywords can be used to logically group code so that they can be collapsed or expanded as required.

Collapsed Regions using BEGIN_END

Expanded Regions using BEGIN_END

Summarizing,

The BEGIN…END keywords are therefore the functional equivalents of the #region…#endregion statements.

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

#0408 – SQL Server – Msg 1750: Could not create constraint or index

Leave a reply

An trivial problem came to my desk recently. We were having some issues in creating a table. The script was quite simple, and yet we were facing errors as shown below.

USE tempdb;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.ConstraintsCheck','U') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck;
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck 
    (RecordId INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1),
     Field1   INT NOT NULL,
     Field2   INT NOT NULL
     CONSTRAINT chk_IsField2GreaterThanField1 CHECK (Field2 > Field1)
    );
GO

The script was being run via an installer, and hence all we got was the last part of the error message:

Msg 1750, Level 16, State 0, Line 7
Could not create constraint or index. See previous errors.

If you have already caught the error, great work! As for us, it took a couple of minutes and running the script via SSMS before we realized that the issue was a just a plain human error.

Here’s the full error that we got when the script was executed in SSMS:

Msg 8141, Level 16, State 0, Line 7
Column CHECK constraint for column 'Field2' references another column, table 'ConstraintsCheck'.
Msg 1750, Level 16, State 0, Line 7
Could not create constraint or index. See previous errors.

The first message that is thrown is the key – it clearly tells us that the CHECK constraint definition cannot be created because it references another column. However, this is a fairly common requirement which is what threw us off.

Finally we realized that we did not have a comma in the T-SQL script before the constraint was defined. Without the comma, SQL Server is trying to create a column constraint, when what we wanted was a table constraint. Here’s the extract from TechNet:

A column constraint is specified as part of a column definition and applies only to that column.
A table constraint is declared independently from a column definition and can apply to more than one column in a table.

So, we just added the comma to convert the column constraint to a table constraint and we were all set.

USE tempdb;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.ConstraintsCheck','U') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck;
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck 
    (RecordId INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1),
     Field1   INT NOT NULL,
     Field2   INT NOT NULL, --<-- A comma here makes it a legal Table Constraint
     CONSTRAINT chk_IsField2GreaterThanField1 CHECK (Field2 > Field1)
    );
GO

References:

CONSTRAINT Documentation [TechNet Link]

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

SQLTwins by Nakul Vachhrajani

SQL Server tips and experiences dedicated to my twin daughters.

Tag Archives: #TSQL

#0416 – SQL Server – Msg 8101 – Use column lists when working with IDENTITY columns

The Solution

#0415 – SQL Server – Performance Tuning – Use STRING_AGG to generate comma separated strings

Advantages of STRING_AGG:

A minor challenge

Further Reading

#0410 – SQL Server – Dividing a TimeSpan by an Integer to find average time per execution

#0409 – SQL Server – Code Blocks – Equivalent of #region…#endregion

#0408 – SQL Server – Msg 1750: Could not create constraint or index

References: