Can I insert into multiple related tables in a single statement? - sql

Question

I have two related tables something like this:
CREATE TABLE test.items
(
id INT identity(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
type VARCHAR(max),
price NUMERIC(6,2)
);
CREATE TABLE test.books
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY REFERENCES test.items(id),
title VARCHAR(max),
author VARCHAR(max)
);
Is it possible to insert into both tables using a single SQL statement?
In PostgreSQL, I can use something like this:
-- PostgreSQL:
WITH item AS (INSERT INTO test.items(type,price) VALUES('book',12.5) RETURNING id)
INSERT INTO test.books(id,title) SELECT id,'Good Omens' FROM item;
but apparently SQL Server limits CTEs to SELECT statements, so that won’t work.
In principle, I could use the OUTPUT clause this way:
-- SQL Server:
INSERT INTO test.items(type, price)
OUTPUT inserted.id, 'Good Omens' INTO test.books(id,title)
VALUES ('book', 12.5);
but this doesn’t work if there’s a foreign key involved, as above.
I know about using variables and procedures, but I wondered whether there is a simple single-statement approach.

Answer 1

You can using dynamic sql as follows. Although its awkward to construct query like this.
CREATE TABLE dbo.items (
id INT identity(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
type VARCHAR(max),
price NUMERIC(6,2)
);
CREATE TABLE dbo.books (
id INT PRIMARY KEY REFERENCES dbo.items(id),
title VARCHAR(max),
author VARCHAR(max)
);
insert into dbo.books(id,title)
exec ('insert into dbo.items(type,price) output inserted.id,''Good Omen'' VALUES(''book'',12.5)')