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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T09:34:29+00:00

We have a table that will store versions of records. The columns are: Id

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We have a table that will store versions of records.

The columns are:

Id (Guid)
VersionNumber (int)
Title (nvarchar)
Description (nvarchar)
etc...

Saving an item will insert a new row into the table with the same Id and an incremented VersionNumber.

I am not sure how is best to generate the sequential VersionNumber values. My initial thought is to:

SELECT @NewVersionNumber = MAX(VersionNumber) + 1
FROM VersionTable
WHERE Id = @ObjectId

And then use the the @NewVersionNumber in my insert statement.

If I use this method do I need set my transaction as serializable to avoid concurrency issues? I don’t want to end up with duplicate VersionNumbers for the same Id.

Is there a better way to do this that doesn’t make me use serializable transactions?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    In order to avoid concurrency issues (or in your specific case duplicate inserts) you could create a Compound Key as the Primary Key for your table, consisting of the ID and VersionNumber columns. This would then enforce a unique constraint on the key column.

    Subsequently your insert routine/logic can be devised to handle or rather CATCH an insert error due to a duplicate key and then simply re-issue the insert process.

    It may also be worth mentioning that unless you specifically need to use a GUID i.e. because of working with SQL Server Replication or multiple data sources, that you should consider using an alternative data type such as BIGINT.

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