Best way to get identity of inserted row?

Question

What is the best way to get IDENTITY of inserted row?

I know about @@IDENTITY and IDENT_CURRENT and SCOPE_IDENTITY

Answer 1

The best (read: safest) way to get the identity of a newly-inserted row is by using the output clause:

create table TableWithIdentity
           ( IdentityColumnName int identity(1, 1) not null primary key,
             ... )

-- type of this table's column must match the type of the
-- identity column of the table you'll be inserting into
declare @IdentityOutput table ( ID int )

insert TableWithIdentity
     ( ... )
output inserted.IdentityColumnName into @IdentityOutput
values
     ( ... )

select @IdentityValue = (select ID from @IdentityOutput)