Question

I have this constraint in a table:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[InventoryLocations]
(
    [recid] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [LocItemNumber] [char](16) NOT NULL,
    [WareHouse] [char](2) NOT NULL,
    [Aisle] [char](3) NOT NULL,
    [Slot] [char](3) NOT NULL,
    [locLevel] [char](2) NOT NULL,
    [Bin] [char](2) NOT NULL,
    [Extra] [char](2) NOT NULL,
    [LocNumber] [char](2) NOT NULL,
    [RollNumber] [char](20) NOT NULL,
    [QuickRoll] [int] NOT NULL,
    [SkidNumber] [char](15) NOT NULL,
    [RollsInStock] [int] NOT NULL,
    [LocQtyOnHand] [float] NOT NULL,
    [LocQtyOnOrder] [float] NOT NULL,
    [LocQtyCommited] [float] NOT NULL,
    [TotalReceived] [float] NOT NULL,
    [TotalIssued] [float] NOT NULL,
    [TotalDollars] [float] NOT NULL,
    [Capacity] [float] NOT NULL,
    [AvailableSpace] [float] NOT NULL,
    [bkey0] [char](30) NULL,
    [bkey1] [char](30) NULL,
    [bkey2] [char](30) NULL,
    [bkey3] [char](14) NULL,
    [LastPhysicalCountDate] [datetime] NULL,
    [LastCycleCountDate] [datetime] NULL,
    [EnteredBy] [varchar](50) NULL,
    [EnteredDateTime] [datetime] NULL,
CONSTRAINT [IX_InventoryLocations_1] UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED 
(
    [LocItemNumber] ASC,
    [WareHouse] ASC,
    [Aisle] ASC,
    [Slot] ASC,
    [locLevel] ASC,
    [Bin] ASC,
    [Extra] ASC,
    [RollNumber] ASC,
    [SkidNumber] ASC
));

And when trying to insert the following rows, I get the error message.
Inside a cursor which populates the variables.

INSERT INTO [AVANTISERVER\NCL_MASTER].[Avanti].[dbo].[InventoryLocations](LocItemNumber, WareHouse, Aisle, Slot, locLevel, Bin, Extra, RollNumber, LocQtyOnHand, SkidNumber)
            SELECT @item, 'F', 'L', 'E', 'X', 'O', @seq, @seq, @qty, @seq
            FROM FI_CurrentReceiptData CR

Which works out to:

VALUES('MW1', 'F', 'L', 'E', 'X', 'O', 0, 0, 10, 0)
VALUES('MW1', 'F', 'L', 'E', 'X', 'O', 1, 1, 10, 1)

Msg 2627, Level 14, State 2, Line 34 Violation of UNIQUE KEY
constraint ‘IX_InventoryLocations_1’. Cannot insert duplicate key in
object ‘InventoryLocations’.

Please help me to understand why I cannot make these insertions? I am not experienced with these sort of complex constraints. What does this one mean (in simple terms) and how can I get around it? Am I actually violating the constraint?

Answer 1

All of the items in your SELECT list are constant expressions.

INSERT INTO [AVANTISERVER\NCL_MASTER].[Avanti].[dbo].[InventoryLocations](LocItemNumber, WareHouse, Aisle, Slot, locLevel, Bin, Extra, RollNumber, LocQtyOnHand, SkidNumber)
            SELECT @item, 'F', 'L', 'E', 'X', 'O', @seq, @seq, @qty, @seq
            FROM FI_CurrentReceiptData CR

I’m not sure why you expect it to differ between rows but in any event it won’t. Perhaps you meant to reference a column rather than a variable somewhere.

As you say in the comments these variables are being updated in a cursor presumably your SELECT is returning multiple rows FROM FI_CurrentReceiptData. Comment out the Insert and look at the results and see how many rows are returned. Or just remove FROM FI_CurrentReceiptData CR entirely as the SELECT doesn’t use anything from it.