How can I access the last inserted row ID within a SQL script?

Ed Marty picture Ed Marty · Nov 30, 2009 · Viewed 15.6k times · Source

I'm using SQLite, and I have a table for properties, and a table for sub-properties. Each sub-property points to its parent using the fkPropertyId column. Right now, to create the initial database, I've got a script that looks something like this:

INSERT INTO property VALUES(1,.....);
INSERT INTO property VALUES(2,.....);
INSERT INTO property VALUES(3,.....);
   INSERT INTO subproperty VALUES(1,.....,3);
   INSERT INTO subproperty VALUES(2,.....,3);
   INSERT INTO subproperty VALUES(3,.....,3);
INSERT INTO property VALUES(4,.....);

Now, I want to get rid of the hard-coded rowId, so it would be something like:

INSERT INTO property VALUES(NULL,.....);
INSERT INTO property VALUES(NULL,.....);
INSERT INTO property VALUES(NULL,.....);
   INSERT INTO subproperty VALUES(NULL,.....,X);
   INSERT INTO subproperty VALUES(NULL,.....,X);
   INSERT INTO subproperty VALUES(NULL,.....,X);
INSERT INTO property VALUES(NULL,.....);

Where x refers to the last inserted rowId in the property table. Right now, that's

(SELECT MAX(rowId) FROM property)

Is there any better (and more technically accurate) way to write this script?

Answer

Ben S picture Ben S · Nov 30, 2009

Use the last_insert_rowid function:

SELECT last_insert_rowid();