Returns information from, or expressions based on, each row affected by an INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or MERGE statement. These results can be returned to the processing application for use in such things as confirmation messages, archiving, and other such application requirements. The results can also be inserted into a table or table variable. Additionally, you can capture the results of an OUTPUT clause in a nested INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or MERGE statement, and insert those results into a target table or view.
 Note |
|---|
An UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE statement that has an OUTPUT clause will return rows to the client even if the statement encounters errors and is rolled back. The result should not be used if any error occurs when you run the statement.
|
Used in:
Applies to: SQL Server (SQL Server 2008 through current version), Azure SQL Database.
|
<OUTPUT_CLAUSE> ::=
{
[ OUTPUT <dml_select_list> INTO { @table_variable | output_table } [ ( column_list ) ] ]
[ OUTPUT <dml_select_list> ]
}
<dml_select_list> ::=
{ <column_name> | scalar_expression } [ [AS] column_alias_identifier ]
[ ,...n ]
<column_name> ::=
{ DELETED | INSERTED | from_table_name } . { * | column_name }
| $action
The OUTPUT <dml_select_list> clause and the OUTPUT <dml_select_list> INTO { @table_variable | output_table } clause can be defined in a single INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or MERGE statement.
| Note |
|---|
Unless specified otherwise, references to the OUTPUT clause refer to both the OUTPUT clause and the OUTPUT INTO clause.
|
The OUTPUT clause may be useful to retrieve the value of identity or computed columns after an INSERT or UPDATE operation.
When a computed column is included in the <dml_select_list>, the corresponding column in the output table or table variable is not a computed column. The values in the new column are the values that were computed at the time the statement was executed.
There is no guarantee that the order in which the changes are applied to the table and the order in which the rows are inserted into the output table or table variable will correspond.
If parameters or variables are modified as part of an UPDATE statement, the OUTPUT clause always returns the value of the parameter or variable as it was before the statement executed instead of the modified value.
You can use OUTPUT with an UPDATE or DELETE statement positioned on a cursor that uses WHERE CURRENT OF syntax.
The OUTPUT clause is not supported in the following statements:
- DML statements that reference local partitioned views, distributed partitioned views, or remote tables.
- INSERT statements that contain an EXECUTE statement.
- Full-text predicates are not allowed in the OUTPUT clause when the database compatibility level is set to 100.
- The OUTPUT INTO clause cannot be used to insert into a view, or rowset function.
- A user-defined function cannot be created if it contains an OUTPUT INTO clause that has a table as its target.
To prevent nondeterministic behavior, the OUTPUT clause cannot contain the following references:
- Subqueries or user-defined functions that perform user or system data access, or are assumed to perform such access. User-defined functions are assumed to perform data access if they are not schema-bound.
- A column from a view or inline table-valued function when that column is defined by one of the following methods:
- A subquery.
- A user-defined function that performs user or system data access, or is assumed to perform such access.
- A computed column that contains a user-defined function that performs user or system data access in its definition.
When SQL Server detects such a column in the OUTPUT clause, error 4186 is raised. For more information, see MSSQLSERVER_4186.
Inserting Data Returned From an OUTPUT Clause Into a Table
When you are capturing the results of an OUTPUT clause in a nested INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or MERGE statement and inserting those results into a target table, keep the following information in mind:
- The whole operation is atomic. Either both the INSERT statement and the nested DML statement that contains the OUTPUT clause execute, or the whole statement fails.
- The following restrictions apply to the target of the outer INSERT statement:
- The target cannot be a remote table, view, or common table expression.
- The target cannot have a FOREIGN KEY constraint, or be referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint.
- Triggers cannot be defined on the target.
- The target cannot participate in merge replication or updatable subscriptions for transactional replication.
- The following restrictions apply to the nested DML statement:
- The target cannot be a remote table or partitioned view.
- The source itself cannot contain a <dml_table_source> clause.
- The OUTPUT INTO clause is not supported in INSERT statements that contain a <dml_table_source> clause.
- @@ROWCOUNT returns the rows inserted only by the outer INSERT statement.
- @@IDENTITY, SCOPE_IDENTITY, and IDENT_CURRENT return identity values generated only by the nested DML statement, and not those generated by the outer INSERT statement.
- Query notifications treat the statement as a single entity, and the type of any message that is created will be the type of the nested DML, even if the significant change is from the outer INSERT statement itself.
- In the <dml_table_source> clause, the SELECT and WHERE clauses cannot include subqueries, aggregate functions, ranking functions, full-text predicates, user-defined functions that perform data access, or the TEXTPTR function.
Triggers
Columns returned from OUTPUT reflect the data as it is after the INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement has completed but before triggers are executed.
For INSTEAD OF triggers, the returned results are generated as if the INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE had actually occurred, even if no modifications take place as the result of the trigger operation. If a statement that includes an OUTPUT clause is used inside the body of a trigger, table aliases must be used to reference the trigger inserted and deleted tables to avoid duplicating column references with the INSERTED and DELETED tables associated with OUTPUT.
If the OUTPUT clause is specified without also specifying the INTO keyword, the target of the DML operation cannot have any enabled trigger defined on it for the given DML action. For example, if the OUTPUT clause is defined in an UPDATE statement, the target table cannot have any enabled UPDATE triggers.
If the sp_configure option disallow results from triggers is set, an OUTPUT clause without an INTO clause causes the statement to fail when it is invoked from within a trigger.
Data Types
The OUTPUT clause supports the large object data types: nvarchar(max), varchar(max), varbinary(max), text, ntext,image, and xml. When you use the .WRITE clause in the UPDATE statement to modify an nvarchar(max), varchar(max), orvarbinary(max) column, the full before and after images of the values are returned if they are referenced. The TEXTPTR( ) function cannot appear as part of an expression on a text, ntext, or image column in the OUTPUT clause.
Queues
You can use OUTPUT in applications that use tables as queues, or to hold intermediate result sets. That is, the application is constantly adding or removing rows from the table. The following example uses the OUTPUT clause in a DELETE statement to return the deleted row to the calling application.
USE AdventureWorks2012; GO DELETE TOP(1) dbo.DatabaseLog WITH (READPAST) OUTPUT deleted.* WHERE DatabaseLogID = 7; GO
This example removes a row from a table used as a queue and returns the deleted values to the processing application in a single action. Other semantics may also be implemented, such as using a table to implement a stack. However, SQL Server does not guarantee the order in which rows are processed and returned by DML statements using the OUTPUT clause. It is up to the application to include an appropriate WHERE clause that can guarantee the desired semantics, or understand that when multiple rows may qualify for the DML operation, there is no guaranteed order. The following example uses a subquery and assumes uniqueness is a characteristic of the DatabaseLogID column in order to implement the desired ordering semantics.
USE tempdb;
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.table1
(
id INT,
employee VARCHAR(32)
);
GO
INSERT INTO dbo.table1 VALUES
(1, 'Fred')
,(2, 'Tom')
,(3, 'Sally')
,(4, 'Alice');
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar TABLE
(
id INT,
employee VARCHAR(32)
);
PRINT 'table1, before delete'
SELECT * FROM dbo.table1;
DELETE FROM dbo.table1
OUTPUT DELETED.* INTO @MyTableVar
WHERE id = 4 OR id = 2;
PRINT 'table1, after delete'
SELECT * FROM dbo.table1;
PRINT '@MyTableVar, after delete'
SELECT * FROM @MyTableVar;
DROP TABLE dbo.table1;
--Results
--table1, before delete
--id employee
------------- ------------------------------
--1 Fred
--2 Tom
--3 Sally
--4 Alice
--
--table1, after delete
--id employee
------------- ------------------------------
--1 Fred
--3 Sally
--@MyTableVar, after delete
--id employee
------------- ------------------------------
--2 Tom
--4 Alice
| Note |
|---|
Use the READPAST table hint in UPDATE and DELETE statements if your scenario allows for multiple applications to perform a destructive read from one table. This prevents locking issues that can come up if another application is already reading the first qualifying record in the table.
|
A. Using OUTPUT INTO with a simple INSERT statement
The following example inserts a row into the ScrapReason table and uses the OUTPUT clause to return the results of the statement to the @MyTableVar table variable. Because the ScrapReasonID column is defined with an IDENTITY property, a value is not specified in the INSERT statement for that column. However, note that the value generated by the Database Engine for that column is returned in the OUTPUT clause in the column inserted.ScrapReasonID.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar table( NewScrapReasonID smallint,
Name varchar(50),
ModifiedDate datetime);
INSERT Production.ScrapReason
OUTPUT INSERTED.ScrapReasonID, INSERTED.Name, INSERTED.ModifiedDate
INTO @MyTableVar
VALUES (N'Operator error', GETDATE());
--Display the result set of the table variable.
SELECT NewScrapReasonID, Name, ModifiedDate FROM @MyTableVar;
--Display the result set of the table.
SELECT ScrapReasonID, Name, ModifiedDate
FROM Production.ScrapReason;
GO
B. Using OUTPUT with a DELETE statement
The following example deletes all rows in the ShoppingCartItem table. The clause OUTPUT deleted.* specifies that the results of the DELETE statement, that is all columns in the deleted rows, be returned to the calling application. The SELECTstatement that follows verifies the results of the delete operation on the ShoppingCartItem table.
USE AdventureWorks2012; GO DELETE Sales.ShoppingCartItem OUTPUT DELETED.* WHERE ShoppingCartID = 20621; --Verify the rows in the table matching the WHERE clause have been deleted. SELECT COUNT(*) AS [Rows in Table] FROM Sales.ShoppingCartItem WHERE ShoppingCartID = 20621; GO
C. Using OUTPUT INTO with an UPDATE statement
The following example updates the VacationHours column in the Employee table by 25 percent for the first 10 rows. TheOUTPUT clause returns the VacationHours value that exists before applying the UPDATE statement in the columndeleted.VacationHours, and the updated value in the column inserted.VacationHours to the @MyTableVar tablevariable.
Two SELECT statements follow that return the values in @MyTableVar and the results of the update operation in the Employeetable.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar table(
EmpID int NOT NULL,
OldVacationHours int,
NewVacationHours int,
ModifiedDate datetime);
UPDATE TOP (10) HumanResources.Employee
SET VacationHours = VacationHours * 1.25,
ModifiedDate = GETDATE()
OUTPUT inserted.BusinessEntityID,
deleted.VacationHours,
inserted.VacationHours,
inserted.ModifiedDate
INTO @MyTableVar;
--Display the result set of the table variable.
SELECT EmpID, OldVacationHours, NewVacationHours, ModifiedDate
FROM @MyTableVar;
GO
--Display the result set of the table.
SELECT TOP (10) BusinessEntityID, VacationHours, ModifiedDate
FROM HumanResources.Employee;
GO
D. Using OUTPUT INTO to return an expression
The following example builds on example C by defining an expression in the OUTPUT clause as the difference between the updated VacationHours value and the VacationHours value before the update was applied. The value of this expression is returned to the @MyTableVar table variable in the column VacationHoursDifference.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar table(
EmpID int NOT NULL,
OldVacationHours int,
NewVacationHours int,
VacationHoursDifference int,
ModifiedDate datetime);
UPDATE TOP (10) HumanResources.Employee
SET VacationHours = VacationHours * 1.25,
ModifiedDate = GETDATE()
OUTPUT inserted.BusinessEntityID,
deleted.VacationHours,
inserted.VacationHours,
inserted.VacationHours - deleted.VacationHours,
inserted.ModifiedDate
INTO @MyTableVar;
--Display the result set of the table variable.
SELECT EmpID, OldVacationHours, NewVacationHours,
VacationHoursDifference, ModifiedDate
FROM @MyTableVar;
GO
SELECT TOP (10) BusinessEntityID, VacationHours, ModifiedDate
FROM HumanResources.Employee;
GO
E. Using OUTPUT INTO with from_table_name in an UPDATE statement
The following example updates the ScrapReasonID column in the WorkOrder table for all work orders with a specifiedProductID and ScrapReasonID. The OUTPUT INTO clause returns values from the table being updated (WorkOrder) and also from the Product table. The Product table is used in the FROM clause to specify the rows to update. Because the WorkOrdertable has an AFTER UPDATE trigger defined on it, the INTO keyword is required.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
DECLARE @MyTestVar table (
OldScrapReasonID int NOT NULL,
NewScrapReasonID int NOT NULL,
WorkOrderID int NOT NULL,
ProductID int NOT NULL,
ProductName nvarchar(50)NOT NULL);
UPDATE Production.WorkOrder
SET ScrapReasonID = 4
OUTPUT deleted.ScrapReasonID,
inserted.ScrapReasonID,
inserted.WorkOrderID,
inserted.ProductID,
p.Name
INTO @MyTestVar
FROM Production.WorkOrder AS wo
INNER JOIN Production.Product AS p
ON wo.ProductID = p.ProductID
AND wo.ScrapReasonID= 16
AND p.ProductID = 733;
SELECT OldScrapReasonID, NewScrapReasonID, WorkOrderID,
ProductID, ProductName
FROM @MyTestVar;
GO
F. Using OUTPUT INTO with from_table_name in a DELETE statement
The following example deletes rows in the ProductProductPhoto table based on search criteria defined in the FROM clause of DELETE statement. The OUTPUT clause returns columns from the table being deleted (deleted.ProductID,deleted.ProductPhotoID) and columns from the Product table. This table is used in the FROM clause to specify the rows to delete.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar table (
ProductID int NOT NULL,
ProductName nvarchar(50)NOT NULL,
ProductModelID int NOT NULL,
PhotoID int NOT NULL);
DELETE Production.ProductProductPhoto
OUTPUT DELETED.ProductID,
p.Name,
p.ProductModelID,
DELETED.ProductPhotoID
INTO @MyTableVar
FROM Production.ProductProductPhoto AS ph
JOIN Production.Product as p
ON ph.ProductID = p.ProductID
WHERE p.ProductModelID BETWEEN 120 and 130;
--Display the results of the table variable.
SELECT ProductID, ProductName, ProductModelID, PhotoID
FROM @MyTableVar
ORDER BY ProductModelID;
GO
G. Using OUTPUT INTO with a large object data type
The following example updates a partial value in DocumentSummary, an nvarchar(max) column in the Production.Documenttable, by using the .WRITE clause. The word components is replaced by the word features by specifying the replacement word, the beginning location (offset) of the word to be replaced in the existing data, and the number of characters to be replaced (length). The example uses the OUTPUT clause to return the before and after images of the DocumentSummarycolumn to the @MyTableVar table variable. Note that the full before and after images of the DocumentSummary column are returned.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar table (
SummaryBefore nvarchar(max),
SummaryAfter nvarchar(max));
UPDATE Production.Document
SET DocumentSummary .WRITE (N'features',28,10)
OUTPUT deleted.DocumentSummary,
inserted.DocumentSummary
INTO @MyTableVar
WHERE Title = N'Front Reflector Bracket Installation';
SELECT SummaryBefore, SummaryAfter
FROM @MyTableVar;
GO
H. Using OUTPUT in an INSTEAD OF trigger
The following example uses the OUTPUT clause in a trigger to return the results of the trigger operation. First, a view is created on the ScrapReason table, and then an INSTEAD OF INSERT trigger is defined on the view that lets only the Namecolumn of the base table to be modified by the user. Because the column ScrapReasonID is an IDENTITY column in the base table, the trigger ignores the user-supplied value. This allows the Database Engine to automatically generate the correct value. Also, the value supplied by the user for ModifiedDate is ignored and is set to the current date. The OUTPUT clause returns the values actually inserted into the ScrapReason table.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.vw_ScrapReason','V') IS NOT NULL
DROP VIEW dbo.vw_ScrapReason;
GO
CREATE VIEW dbo.vw_ScrapReason
AS (SELECT ScrapReasonID, Name, ModifiedDate
FROM Production.ScrapReason);
GO
CREATE TRIGGER dbo.io_ScrapReason
ON dbo.vw_ScrapReason
INSTEAD OF INSERT
AS
BEGIN
--ScrapReasonID is not specified in the list of columns to be inserted
--because it is an IDENTITY column.
INSERT INTO Production.ScrapReason (Name, ModifiedDate)
OUTPUT INSERTED.ScrapReasonID, INSERTED.Name,
INSERTED.ModifiedDate
SELECT Name, getdate()
FROM inserted;
END
GO
INSERT vw_ScrapReason (ScrapReasonID, Name, ModifiedDate)
VALUES (99, N'My scrap reason','20030404');
GO
Here is the result set generated on April 12, 2004 ('2004-04-12'). Notice that the ScrapReasonIDActual and ModifiedDatecolumns reflect the values generated by the trigger operation instead of the values provided in the INSERT statement.
ScrapReasonID Name ModifiedDate
------------- ---------------- -----------------------
17 My scrap reason 2004-04-12 16:23:33.050
I. Using OUTPUT INTO with identity and computed columns
The following example creates the EmployeeSales table and then inserts several rows into it using an INSERT statement with a SELECT statement to retrieve data from source tables. The EmployeeSales table contains an identity column (EmployeeID) and a computed column (ProjectedSales).
USE AdventureWorks2012 ;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ('dbo.EmployeeSales', 'U') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE dbo.EmployeeSales;
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.EmployeeSales
( EmployeeID int IDENTITY (1,5)NOT NULL,
LastName nvarchar(20) NOT NULL,
FirstName nvarchar(20) NOT NULL,
CurrentSales money NOT NULL,
ProjectedSales AS CurrentSales * 1.10
);
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar table(
EmployeeID int NOT NULL,
LastName nvarchar(20) NOT NULL,
FirstName nvarchar(20) NOT NULL,
CurrentSales money NOT NULL,
ProjectedSales money NOT NULL
);
INSERT INTO dbo.EmployeeSales (LastName, FirstName, CurrentSales)
OUTPUT INSERTED.LastName,
INSERTED.FirstName,
INSERTED.CurrentSales
INTO @MyTableVar
SELECT c.LastName, c.FirstName, sp.SalesYTD
FROM Sales.SalesPerson AS sp
INNER JOIN Person.Person AS c
ON sp.BusinessEntityID = c.BusinessEntityID
WHERE sp.BusinessEntityID LIKE '2%'
ORDER BY c.LastName, c.FirstName;
SELECT EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName, CurrentSales, ProjectedSales
FROM @MyTableVar;
GO
SELECT EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName, CurrentSales, ProjectedSales
FROM dbo.EmployeeSales;
GO
J. Using OUTPUT and OUTPUT INTO in a single statement
The following example deletes rows in the ProductProductPhoto table based on search criteria defined in the FROM clause of DELETE statement. The OUTPUT INTO clause returns columns from the table being deleted (deleted.ProductID,deleted.ProductPhotoID) and columns from the Product table to the @MyTableVar table variable. The Product table is used in the FROM clause to specify the rows to delete. The OUTPUT clause returns the deleted.ProductID,deleted.ProductPhotoID columns and the date and time the row was deleted from the ProductProductPhoto table to the calling application.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
DECLARE @MyTableVar table (
ProductID int NOT NULL,
ProductName nvarchar(50)NOT NULL,
ProductModelID int NOT NULL,
PhotoID int NOT NULL);
DELETE Production.ProductProductPhoto
OUTPUT DELETED.ProductID,
p.Name,
p.ProductModelID,
DELETED.ProductPhotoID
INTO @MyTableVar
OUTPUT DELETED.ProductID, DELETED.ProductPhotoID, GETDATE() AS DeletedDate
FROM Production.ProductProductPhoto AS ph
JOIN Production.Product as p
ON ph.ProductID = p.ProductID
WHERE p.ProductID BETWEEN 800 and 810;
--Display the results of the table variable.
SELECT ProductID, ProductName, PhotoID, ProductModelID
FROM @MyTableVar;
GO
K. Inserting data returned from an OUTPUT clause
The following example captures data returned from the OUTPUT clause of a MERGE statement, and inserts that data into another table. The MERGE statement updates the Quantity column of the ProductInventory table daily, based on orders that are processed in the SalesOrderDetail table. It also deletes rows for products whose inventories drop to 0 or below. The example captures the rows that are deleted and inserts them into another table, ZeroInventory, which tracks products with no inventory.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID(N'Production.ZeroInventory', N'U') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE Production.ZeroInventory;
GO
--Create ZeroInventory table.
CREATE TABLE Production.ZeroInventory (DeletedProductID int, RemovedOnDate DateTime);
GO
INSERT INTO Production.ZeroInventory (DeletedProductID, RemovedOnDate)
SELECT ProductID, GETDATE()
FROM
( MERGE Production.ProductInventory AS pi
USING (SELECT ProductID, SUM(OrderQty) FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail AS sod
JOIN Sales.SalesOrderHeader AS soh
ON sod.SalesOrderID = soh.SalesOrderID
AND soh.OrderDate = '20070401'
GROUP BY ProductID) AS src (ProductID, OrderQty)
ON (pi.ProductID = src.ProductID)
WHEN MATCHED AND pi.Quantity - src.OrderQty <= 0
THEN DELETE
WHEN MATCHED
THEN UPDATE SET pi.Quantity = pi.Quantity - src.OrderQty
OUTPUT $action, deleted.ProductID) AS Changes (Action, ProductID)
WHERE Action = 'DELETE';
IF @@ROWCOUNT = 0
PRINT 'Warning: No rows were inserted';
GO
SELECT DeletedProductID, RemovedOnDate FROM Production.ZeroInventory;
