Primary key value after insertion of row in SQL Server 2005

Question

In SQL Server 2005 I am inserting a row into a table using a stored procedure and I want to fetch the new primary key value just after inserting that row. I am using following

Answer 1

If you have an Identity column as primary key you should use SCOPE_IDENTITY()

You could also use the OUTPUT Clause to return the ID.

insert into tableTest(testUserEmail,testUserName) 
output inserted.ID
values (@testValue, @testName)

Answer 2

By all means - use the SCOPE_IDENTITY() if your ID column is an INT IDENTITY - only that will give you the correct results!

The first approach with the MAX(ID) will fail terribly if you have multiple clients inserting rows almost at the same time - you'll get false results back. Don't use that!

The third approach might fail if another entry with the same values for E-Mail and name already exists.

Also, as a side-note: you should never use sp_ as your prefix! This is a Microsoft-reserved prefix and has downsides in terms of performance - use something else.