Insert with no columns?

[Colin McGuigan]

SQL Server 7.0

I have a table that has only one column, which is an identity field. It's
used only for ensuring that a transaction has a unique number. My problem
is I don't know how to INSERT a new record into it to get a new identity.
I've tried all variants that I can think of of:

INSERT TransactionCounter
INSERT TransactionCounter()
INSERT TransactionCounter VALUES
INSERT TransactionCounter VALUES ()
INSERT TransactionCounter() VALUES ()

....but nothing seems to work. I can easily jury rig around this by simply
adding a dummy field and inserting a spurious value into that, but I'm
curious: is there a syntax to do an insert without specifying any columns?

--
Colin McGuigan

[D. Patrick Hoerter]

Colin,

No.

As an aside, I like to use a single-column, single-row integer table for
this purpose, doing like so:

CREATE PROCEDURE GetNextID (@iNextID int OUTPUT) AS

SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE

UPDATE ID_Source SET ID_Value = ID_Value + 1

SELECT @iNextID = ID_Value FROM ID_Source

RETURN


Your method of availing yourself of the services of the IDENTITY column
works great, though.

Regards,
D. Patrick Hoerter

Colin McGuigan wrote in message <3989ed31$1@news.devx.com>...
>SQL Server 7.0
>
>I have a table that has only one column, which is an identity field. It's
>used only for ensuring that a transaction has a unique number. My problem
>is I don't know how to INSERT a new record into it to get a new identity.
>I've tried all variants that I can think of of:
>
>INSERT TransactionCounter
>INSERT TransactionCounter()
>INSERT TransactionCounter VALUES
>INSERT TransactionCounter VALUES ()
>INSERT TransactionCounter() VALUES ()
>
>...but nothing seems to work. I can easily jury rig around this by simply
>adding a dummy field and inserting a spurious value into that, but I'm
>curious: is there a syntax to do an insert without specifying any columns?
>
>--
>Colin McGuigan
>
>

[Colin McGuigan]

D. Patrick Hoerter wrote in message <398a1c92@news.devx.com>...
>Colin,
>
> No.

Ah. I found one, actually, which I post here to commit to the immortal
memory of news.devx.com (long live news.devx.com!):

INSERT TransactionCounter DEFAULT VALUES


--
Colin McGuigan

[D. Patrick Hoerter]

Colin,

I'll be damned. In all this time I never saw that option. Was that
possible on 6.5? I don't remember it.

Regards,
D. Patrick Hoerter

Colin McGuigan wrote in message <398b0ac1$1@news.devx.com>...
>D. Patrick Hoerter wrote in message <398a1c92@news.devx.com>...
>>Colin,
>>
>> No.
>
>Ah. I found one, actually, which I post here to commit to the immortal
>memory of news.devx.com (long live news.devx.com!):
>
>INSERT TransactionCounter DEFAULT VALUES
>
>
>--
>Colin McGuigan
>
>
>

[Colin McGuigan]

D. Patrick Hoerter wrote in message <398b3e32@news.devx.com>...
>Colin,
>
> I'll be damned. In all this time I never saw that option. Was that
>possible on 6.5? I don't remember it.
>
>Regards,
>D. Patrick Hoerter

Yeah; it gets all of two lines in the help file. I don't know why I noticed
it there, I just did. As for 6.5...I honestly haven't a clue. I
uninstalled my last copy of 6.5 off of a computer here sometime around half
a year ago...


--
Colin McGuigan

[D. Patrick Hoerter]

Colin,

>. I
>uninstalled my last copy of 6.5 off of a computer here sometime around half
>a year ago...


Lucky! So far, I've worked in 2 mixed environ.'s. Not complaining, it's
just fun keeping track of which version you're coding against with stored
procedures.... You can't do that! Yes, you can! Wait, no you can't. Wait...
;-)


Colin McGuigan wrote in message <398ec10b@news.devx.com>...
>D. Patrick Hoerter wrote in message <398b3e32@news.devx.com>...
>>Colin,
>>
>> I'll be damned. In all this time I never saw that option. Was that
>>possible on 6.5? I don't remember it.
>>
>>Regards,
>>D. Patrick Hoerter
>
>Yeah; it gets all of two lines in the help file. I don't know why I
noticed
>it there, I just did. As for 6.5...I honestly haven't a clue. I
>uninstalled my last copy of 6.5 off of a computer here sometime around half
>a year ago...
>
>
>--
>Colin McGuigan
>
>
>