identity grab size

Summary information

Default value

1

Range of values

1–2147483647

Status

Dynamic

Display level

Intermediate

Required role

System administrator

Configuration group

SQL Server Administration

identity grab size allows each Adaptive Server process to reserve a block of IDENTITY column values for inserts into tables that have an IDENTITY column.

This is useful if you are performing inserts, and you want all the inserted data to have contiguous IDENTITY numbers. For instance, if you are entering payroll data, and you want all records associated with a particular department to be located within the same block of rows, set identity grab size to the number of records for that department.

identity grab size applies to all users on Adaptive Server. Large identity grab size values result in large gaps in the IDENTITY column when many users insert data into tables with IDENTITY columns.

Sybase recommends that you set identity grab size to a value large enough to accommodate the largest group of records you want to insert into contiguous rows.