Question

I just noticed a Stored Procedure was using the following BEGIN/COMMIT TRAN.

BEGIN TRAN
  INSERT INTO SomeTable
     (
         TypeID
     )  
  VALUES
     ( 
         @TypeID
     )
    SET @OvID = SCOPE_IDENTITY() 
 COMMIT TRAN           

Is it a good practice to use a Transaction on a INSERT and SCOPE_IDENTITY?

Will using a TRAN in this way slow down the INSERT process a lot?

I always think of using a Transaction when you have multiple statements that could fail (i.e. like two INSERTS). In this case, I can see the INSERT failing but I suspect the SCOPE_IDENTITY will always succeed.

Answer 1

For a single statement it doesn’t really matter, in that you aren’t gaining any additional atomicity or reliability. And SCOPE_IDENTITY() can’t be affected by anything outside of your current batch, so wrapping it in a TRANS block won’t have any affect.

Whether it’s a good practice to get into is rather subjective so I’m intentionally not addressing it!