Question

Why am I getting an error doing an insert when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF?

How do I turn it on properly in SQL Server 2008? Is it by using SQL Server Management Studio?

I have run this query:

SET IDENTITY_INSERT Database. dbo. Baskets ON

Then I got the message back in the console that the Command(s) completed successfully.
However when I run the application, it still gives me the error shown below:

Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table 'Baskets' when 
IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF.

Answer 1

Via SQL as per MSDN

SET IDENTITY_INSERT sometableWithIdentity ON

INSERT INTO sometableWithIdentity 
    (IdentityColumn, col2, col3, ...)
VALUES 
    (AnIdentityValue, col2value, col3value, ...)

SET IDENTITY_INSERT sometableWithIdentity OFF

The complete error message tells you exactly what is wrong…

Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table ‘sometableWithIdentity’ when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF.