Specify "NEXT VALUE" for INSERT statement using identity column in SQL Server - sql

Question

Consider the following table and SQL from Microsoft's INSERT documentation that deals with IDENTITY columns:
CREATE TABLE dbo.T1 (column_1 int IDENTITY, column_2 VARCHAR(30));
GO
INSERT T1 (column_2) VALUES ('Row #2');
The INSERT statement does not specify column_1 as a column of the table, and SQL Server auto-populates the next value for that identity column. This is the normal way identity columns are handled.
How can I have the same behavior, while also specifying the column name?
For example, I'm looking for something like:
INSERT INTO T1 (column_1, column_2)
VALUES (NEXT VALUE, 'Row #3');
GO
I don't believe NEXT VALUE works here, but is there something that does work? Is there a key token or function that will indicate that the identity column should be used?
Note: the reason I ask is that the framework I'm using requires all columns to be specified in the column list.

Answer 1

If you are on SQL Server 2012 and later, you can use sequence. But you must remove the IDENTITY property from Column1 first. This can only be done by copy-and-rename a new table.
CREATE SEQUENCE Column1_Sequence
AS int
START WITH 0;
CREATE TABLE T1
(
Column1 int DEFAULT (NEXT VALUE FOR Column1_Sequence) PRIMARY KEY
, Column2 nvarchar(30)
)
After that, you can insert data into the table in 2 ways:
INSERT INTO T1 (Column1, Column2)
SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR Column1_Sequence
, 'Row #2'
INSERT INTO T1 (Column2)
SELECT 'Hello world'

Answer 2

Can you set the identity insert on before inserting and then set the identity insert off

Answer 3

You cannot set value for identity column unless you set identity_insert on for this table (one at time). Some examples:
create table #tmp (id int identity(1,1), name varchar(10))
insert #tmp (id,name) values (2,'test')
--error Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table '#tmp
set identity_insert #tmp on --for one table in DB
insert #tmp (id,name) values (2,'qwas')
select * from #tmp
set identity_insert #tmp off -- good practice
--works
--see current identity value
SELECT IDENT_CURRENT ('#tmp') AS Current_Identity;
--Reset identity value
DBCC CHECKIDENT (#tmp, RESEED, 999)
--next insert will be 1000
Of course, if you reset next identity to a value which conflicts with PK (common usage of identity) you will have Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint error

Answer 4

I am pretty sure there is no way to do that with SQL Server. Two workarounds that I can think of:
Fix the library if possible.
If the library supports it, you can create a view and INSERT into that instead. For example:
CREATE TABLE MyTable
(
ID INT IDENTITY(1, 1),
SomeColumn VARCHAR(100)
)
GO
CREATE VIEW MyTableView
AS
SELECT SomeColumn
FROM MyTable
GO
INSERT INTO MyTableView (SomeColumn) VALUES ('Test')