SQL Server, can't insert null into primary key field?

Question

I\'m about ready to rip my hair out on this one. I\'m fairly new to MS SQL, and haven\'t seen a similar post anywhere.

When I try to do a statement like this:

<

Answer 1

I'm assuming your real issue is that you're not sure how to write an insert statement so that the PK is auto populated correct? You need to name the fields you're setting values for, it looks like you're trying to set all of them but just exclude the PK field like so:

INSERT INTO someTable
(fieldName1, fieldName2) 
VALUES(1,1)

Where sometable is a table with three fields. PK, fieldName1, and fieldName2. You also need to make sure that the identity property on the PK field is set to true.

Answer 2

Primary keys shouldnt accept null value.Why you are inserting null values to a primary key field ?Primary key field should have a non-nullable,unique value which will make each of your record in the table unique

Answer 3

you can use 0 instead of null for only 1 unique row, null is not possible for PK. Or you can omit PK and use and auto increament PK field

Answer 4

You probably don't have (you forgot to add) autoincrement set on your integer primary key.

Answer 5

Assuming you have an autoincrement field for your primary Key you'll need to include the field list on your insert and not put a value for that field e.g.

INSERT INTO qcRawMatTestCharacteristic 
(Answer1,Answer2,...SomeDateField)
VALUES(1,1,1,1,1,1,1,'','','', GETDATE(), 1)

Answer 6

Primary keys in any relational database are not allowed to be NULL - it's one of the main, fundamental characteristics of a primary key.

See: SQL by Design: how to Choose the primary key

Never Null
No primary key value can be null, nor can you do anything to render the primary key null. This is an inviolate rule of the relational model as supported by ANSI, of relational database management system (RDBMS) design, and of SQL Server.

UPDATE: ok, so you want an "auto-increment" primary key in SQL Server.

You need to define it as an INT IDENTITY in your CREATE TABLE statement:

 CREATE TABLE dbo.YourTable(ID INT IDENTITY, col1 INT, ..., colN INT)

and then when you do an INSERT, you need to explicitly specify the columns to insert, but just don't specify the "ID" column in that list - then SQL Server will handle finding the proper value automagically:

 INSERT INTO dbo.YourTable(col1, col2, ..., colN) -- anything **except** `ID`      
 VALUES(va1l, val2, ..., valN)

If you want to do this after having created the table already, you can do so in the SQL Server Management Studio's table designer: