Adding an identity to an existing column

Question

I need to change the primary key of a table to an identity column, and there\'s already a number of rows in table.

I\'ve got a script to clean up the IDs to ensure

Answer 1

I'm a java developer that happened to get on a team without a DBA and one where as a developer, I can't get DBA rights. I was tasked with moving an entire schema between two databases, so without having a DBA, I had to do it and do it by running scripts, not being able to use the GUI in SQL Server 2008 because I didn't have admin privileges.

Everything was moved without issue, however, when running a stored procedure on the new schema.table, I found I lost the identity field in a table. I double checked the script that created the table and it was there, however, SQL Server didn't get it when I ran the script. I was told later by a DBA that he had seen this same problem before.

In any event, for SQL Server 2008, these are the steps I took to get this resolved and they worked, so I'm posting this here in the hopes it will be a help to someone. This is what I did as I had FK dependencies on another table that made this more difficult:

I used this query to verify the identity was indeed missing and to view dependencies on the table.

1.) Find statistics on a table:

exec sp_help 'dbo.table_name_old';

2.) Create a duplicate, identical new table, except add an identity field on the PK field where it had been before.

3.) Disable the identity to move data.

SET IDENTITY_INSERT dbo.table_name ON 

4.) Transfer the data.

INSERT INTO dbo.table_name_new
(
field1, field2, etc...
)
SELECT 
field1, field2, etc...
FROM 
dbo.table_name_old;

5.) Verify the data is there.

SELECT * FROM dbo.table_name_new

6.) Re-enable the identity.

SET IDENTITY_INSERT ToyRecP.ToyAwards.lkpFile_New OFF

7.) This is the best script I found to get all the FK relationships to verify which table(s) the original table references as dependencies and I came across many, so it is a keeper!

SELECT f.name AS ForeignKey,
   OBJECT_NAME(f.parent_object_id) AS TableName,
   COL_NAME(fc.parent_object_id, fc.parent_column_id) AS ColumnName,
   OBJECT_NAME (f.referenced_object_id) AS ReferenceTableName,
   COL_NAME(fc.referenced_object_id, fc.referenced_column_id) AS ReferenceColumnName
FROM sys.foreign_keys AS f
INNER JOIN sys.foreign_key_columns AS fc
   ON f.OBJECT_ID = fc.constraint_object_id
   ORDER BY ReferenceTableName;

8.) Make sure you have all the PK and FK scripts for all the tables involved, before this next step.

9.) You can right-click on each key and script this using SQL Server 2008

10.) Drop the FK(s) from the dependency table(s) using this syntax:

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[table_name] DROP CONSTRAINT [Name_of_FK]

11.) Drop the original table:

DROP TABLE dbo.table_name_old;

13.) These next steps rely on the scripts you created in SQL Server 2008 in step 9.

--Add the PK to the new table.

--Add the FK to the new table.

--Add the FK's back to the dependency table.

14.) Verify everything is correct and complete. I used the GUI to look at the tables.

15.) Rename the new table to the original tables name.

exec sp_RENAME '[Schema_Name.OldTableName]' , '[NewTableName]';

Finally, everything worked!