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

I can't speak to other versions of SQL Server, but in 2012, outputting directly works just fine. You don't need to bother with a temporary table.

INSERT INTO MyTable
OUTPUT INSERTED.ID
VALUES (...)

By the way, this technique also works when inserting multiple rows.

INSERT INTO MyTable
OUTPUT INSERTED.ID
VALUES
    (...),
    (...),
    (...)

Output

ID
2
3
4