SQL: Reseeding the Identity Column

If you have reference tables containing list data used to populate drop downs and selection controls in your UI, you may run into instances where you need to clear and repopulate these tables with updated data. But at the same time you may need to maintain the identity numbers when the table is repopulated to make sure that references from other tables remain correct. To accomplish this you need to make sure that your SQL scripts reset the table’s identity column back to 0 so that when the table is repopulated the first entry begins with 1 rather than 32. Here is an example:

DELETE FROM [UsState]


GO




DBCC CHECKIDENT('UsState', RESEED, 0)


GO




INSERT INTO [UsState] VALUES ('Alabama', 'AL');


INSERT INTO [UsState] VALUES ('Alaska', 'AK');


INSERT INTO [UsState] VALUES ('Arizona', 'AZ');


INSERT INTO [UsState] VALUES ('Arkansas', 'AR');

	


	


    
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Tim Clark


		

			Experienced Business Owner, Chief Information Officer, Vice President, Chief Software Architect, Application Architect, Project Manager, Software Developer, Senior Web Developer, Graphic Designer & 3D Modeler, University Instructor, University Program Chair, Academic Director.

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