Thank you for your input.

the sole purpose for it is to generate unique sequential numbers (IDs)...

Eh, dynamic sql ?. Anything is possible with dynamic sql, right?:-)

Thanks, that's what I initially had on my system. It is apparent now, that there is no way

declare @howmany int=3

insert top (@howMany)

can be used to force...

btw, Thank you for showing how to use output clause in combination with default values, as it is not something we run into everyday!

you are still using the GO 3 method.:cool:

The question is how to do it without GO 3 ??

Sean, please post the working sql if you have it. I tried using output clause and still unable to output 3 identity numbers which is the goal here.

- This works

Yours does not on our cluster evironment (NULL)

create table #temp (ipLine varchar(200))

insert #temp

...

Excellent! 🙂 Great job!

Exactly, I was just wondering whether you know where ?

RegOpenKeyEx() returned error 2, 'The system cannot find the file specified.' :doze:

this is on named instance of sql 2008 on 64-bit 2008 server

cute script, but fails with error:

"Msg 8152, Level 16, State 13, Line 1

String or binary data would be truncated."

there is also another much shorter script for this (which actually works):

EXEC...

can't you just use SSMS to script the jobs ??

- unless there is a DBA that will prohibit it:-D

Thanks for your time.

to be clear, that is not a production code. Column names have been used in production for over decade now. yes order by name works, ...

Let me restate the question:...