How can I set a Microsoft SQL field as identity but to START with a certain number?

Question

How can I set a Microsoft SQL field as identity but to START with a certain number?

Answer 1

In SQL Server, when you declare the column as an IDENTITY column, you specify a seed and increment.

The seed value is the number to start from, the increment is the amount to increment for the next number.

In this example, you start with 100, incrementing by 1:

column INT NOT NULL IDENTITY (100, 1)

If you want to change it for an existing table (so new records start from a different range), use DBCC CHECKIDENT.

In this example, the table dbo.myTable will start with a new seed of 300:

DBCC CHECKIDENT ("dbo.myTable", RESEED, 300);