Transactions, Stored Procedures, and More: Mastering Multi-Table Inserts in SQL Server

• Single statement: A single INSERT statement can only target one table at a time.

Approaches:

1. Multiple INSERT statements: This is the simplest approach. You can write separate INSERT statements for each table, one after the other. This works well for simple scenarios, but it can become cumbersome with complex logic or many tables involved.

Example:

INSERT INTO Table1 (col1, col2)
VALUES ('value1', 'value2');

INSERT INTO Table2 (col3, col4)
VALUES ('value3', 'value4');

1. Transactions: Transactions allow you to group multiple SQL statements into a single logical unit. If any statement within the transaction fails, the entire transaction is rolled back, ensuring data consistency. This is useful when you need to perform multiple inserts and want them to succeed or fail together.

BEGIN TRANSACTION;

INSERT INTO Table1 (col1, col2)
VALUES ('value1', 'value2');

INSERT INTO Table2 (col3, col4)
VALUES ('value3', 'value4');

COMMIT TRANSACTION;

1. Stored Procedures: Stored procedures are predefined blocks of code that can be reused. You can create a stored procedure containing the logic for inserting data into multiple tables, making your code more organized and maintainable. Additionally, stored procedures can leverage features like OUTPUT clause to retrieve generated IDs from the first table and use them in the second insert.

Example: (Simplified example, consult documentation for full syntax)

CREATE PROCEDURE InsertIntoTwoTables (
    @Value1 nvarchar(50),
    @Value2 nvarchar(50),
    @Value3 nvarchar(50),
    @Value4 nvarchar(50)
)
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @ID int;

    INSERT INTO Table1 (col1, col2)
    OUTPUT INSERTED.ID INTO @ID
    VALUES (@Value1, @Value2);

    INSERT INTO Table2 (col3, col4)
    VALUES (@Value3, @Value4, @ID);
END;