Returning the value of identity column after insertion in Oracle

Question

How do I return the value of an identity column (id) in Oracle 12c after insertion? Seems like most of the approaches out there uses sequence to get back the id of the inserted item.

Answer 1

Simply use the RETURNING clause.

For example -

RETURNING identity_id INTO variable_id;

Test case -

SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> CREATE TABLE t
  2    (ID NUMBER GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY, text VARCHAR2(50)
  3    );

Table created.

SQL>
SQL> DECLARE
  2    var_id NUMBER;
  3  BEGIN
  4    INSERT INTO t
  5      (text
  6      ) VALUES
  7      ('test'
  8      ) RETURNING ID INTO var_id;
  9    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('ID returned is = '||var_id);
 10  END;
 11  /
ID returned is = 1

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL>

SQL> select * from t;

        ID TEXT
---------- --------------------------------------------
         1 test

SQL>