Adding auto incrementing primary key to an existing table in SQL SERVER 2005

Question

I have a table with 8,000 rows of data and will be adding more. but I forgot to put a primary key in the beginning. so that each row has a unique key. later i added a primar

Answer 1

Open Table Design, Add New Column u want Select the column and in Properties In Identity Specification make (Is Identity) Yes.. You can start from where you want by setting the Identity Seed property, by Default it starts from 1.

If you have already Identity Column u can also update it.
Step 1: Remove Identity Specification from Column in Table Design.
Step 2: Use Cursor to Update table Column starting from 1.
Step 3: Again apply Identity Specification on Column in Table Design
Step 4: By query reset Identity Column, from the value u want. e.g
DBCC CHECKIDENT("TableName",Reseed,8000);
so the next identity value will be 8001.