BUG: SELECT INTO Temp Tables w/Identity Columns May Cause Errors

• Microsoft SQL Server, version 6.5

SYMPTOMS

An error 3905 or 631 can occur if both of the following conditions are true:

• SELECT INTO is used to create temporary tables against tables with identity columns in a user-defined transaction.

  -and-

• A table with an identity column is updated.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, do either of the following:

• Remove the user-defined transaction and possibly use trace flag 5302 to avoid deadlocks in the tempdb database.

  -or-

• Prevent the SELECT INTO statement from creating the temporary table with the identity column. You can do this by using the CONVERT function to convert the identity column to its datatype.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server version 6.5. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

The following are the errors that would normally be seen in the SQL Server errorlog when this problem occurs:

   Error : 631, Severity: 21, State: 1
   The length of 35 passed to delete row routine for the row at offset 1946
   is incorrect on the following page: Page pointer = 0x1016800, pageno =
   319, status = 0x111, objectid = 3, indexid = 0

   Error : 602, Severity: 21, State: 3
   Could not find row in Sysindexes for dbid '2', object '1655676946',index
   '-1'. Run DBCC CHECKTABLE on Sysindexes.

   -or-

   Error : 3905, Severity: 21, State: 2
   Can't unsplit logical page 316 in object 'syscolumns' in database 'pubs'
   - row number 12 is used on both pages.

   Error : 602, Severity: 21, State: 3
   Could not find row in Sysindexes for dbid '2', object '98099390',index
   '-1'. Run DBCC CHECKTABLE on Sysindexes.

The following is an example of how to avoid the temporary table being created with the identity column property:

   CREATE TABLE x
   (a int identity(1,1),
   b int)
   GO
   CREATE PROCEDURE sp_selectintoidentity AS
   SELECT Convert(int, a), b INTO #temp FROM x
   RETURN
   GO