SQL - Check if a column auto increments

Aust picture Aust · Dec 7, 2012 · Viewed 37.7k times · Source

I am trying to run a query to check if a column auto increments. I can check type, default value, if it's nullable or not, etc. but I can't figure out how to test if it auto increments. Here is how I am testing for those other things:

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'my_table'
AND COLUMN_NAME = 'my_column'
AND DATA_TYPE = 'int'
AND COLUMN_DEFAULT IS NULL
AND IS_NULLABLE = 'NO'
--AND AUTO_INCREMENTS = 'YES'

Unfortunately there is no AUTO_INCREMENTS column to compare against. So how can I test if a column auto increments?

Answer

Michael Fredrickson picture Michael Fredrickson · Dec 7, 2012

For MySql, Check in the EXTRA column:

SELECT *
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'my_table'
    AND COLUMN_NAME = 'my_column'
    AND DATA_TYPE = 'int'
    AND COLUMN_DEFAULT IS NULL
    AND IS_NULLABLE = 'NO'
    AND EXTRA like '%auto_increment%'

For Sql Server, use sys.columns and the is_identity column:

SELECT 
    is_identity
FROM sys.columns
WHERE 
    object_id = object_id('my_table')
    AND name = 'my_column'