Get back the id of each insert in SQL Server - sql

Question

Let's say we want to insert two users and I want to know the userId of each record I inserted.
Example:
Db:
User.lookup database with these columns:
UserId(PK, identity) | Username
Setup, insert two users:
declare #users table (uniqueId INT, name nvarchar(100));
insert into #users (0, 'TestUser')--Two users with the same name, they'll get a different userid in the db
insert into #users (1, 'TestUser')--Uniqueid is just an autonumber I use to tell the difference between them.
Insert statement:
insert into user.lookup (userName)
output inserted.userid
select name from #users;
This will return two usersIds, example 1 & 2. But how do I know which of the two users got which userId?
I can differentiate them in code with their 'uniqueid' I pass but I don't know how to return it.

Answer 1

Don't just output the id. You can include other columns:
insert into user.lookup (userName)
output inserted.*
select name from #users;
Here is a db<>fiddle.

Answer 2

You can't correlate the inserted rows with the database-assigned IDs, at least not without inserting an alternate key as well. INSERT ... OUTPUT will not let you output a row that wasn't actually inserted, so the column that correlates the un-keyed rows with the new key values has to be actually inserted.
So the options are:
To use a SEQUENCE instead of IDENTITY and and either assign IDs to the table variable before insert, or assign IDs to the entities on the client, eg by calling sp_sequence_get_range.
Use MERGE instead of INSERT. This is what Entity Framework Core does. See eg The Case of Entity Framework Core’s Odd SQL

Answer 3

As Gordon explained, one can output more than 1 column.
But just to put my 2 cents in, such insert doesn't really need an intermediate table variable.
create table lookup (
lookupId int identity primary key,
userName nvarchar(100),
createdOn datetime2 not null
default sysdatetime()
)
GO
✓
insert into lookup (userName) values
('TestUser1')
,('TestUser2')
;
GO
2 rows affected
insert into lookup (userName)
output inserted.lookupId, inserted.userName
values
('Testuser3'),
('Testuser3')
GO
lookupId | userName
-------: | :--------
3 | Testuser3
4 | Testuser3
select lookupId, userName
--, convert(varchar,createdOn) as createdOn
from lookup
order by lookupId
GO
lookupId | userName
-------: | :--------
1 | TestUser1
2 | TestUser2
3 | Testuser3
4 | Testuser3
db<>fiddle here