Question

well I’m using MS SQL Server (mostly working with the Management Studio) and I can’t find out how to know what values from a table do I have to insert and what values are created automatically? How do I view that?
I mean ID’s are often calculated automatically, but sometimes you need to insert them by hand, so how exactly can I find out/see that?

Answer 1

Since you are already in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio), run the following in a query window/tab:

USE [DBNameWhereTableResides]
EXEC sp_help 'SchemaName.TableName'

OR

EXEC DBNameWhereTableResides.dbo.sp_help 'SchemaName.TableName'

You will see entries for “Identity” and “RowGuidCol” that will tell you if the ID is auto-generated.

You will also see a section for Constraints, first column shown being “constraint_type”, that will show any DEFAULT constraints that will pre-fill a colummn if the value is not specified in the INSERT.

The second section shows all of the column definitions and the ones marked as “Nullable” = “yes” don’t need to be in the INSERT but without being an IDENTITY field or having a DEFAULT it won’t get a value and will remain NULL if not specified in the INSERT.