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GO keyword

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Alexander Barnes
Starting Member

10 Posts

Posted - 2009-02-14 : 21:10:55

What does GO do in this script ... or why would you use it?

1> create table employee(
2>     ID          int,
3>     name        nvarchar (10),
4>     salary      int,
5>     start_date  datetime,
6>     city        nvarchar (10),
7>     region      char (1))
8> GO
1>
2> insert into employee (ID, name,    salary, start_date, city,       region)
3>               values (1,  'Jason', 40420,  '02/01/94', 'New York', 'W')
4> GO

(1 rows affected)

...repeats inserts as above...

sunitabeck
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

5155 Posts

Posted - 2009-02-14 : 23:20:13

GO is the batch separator - an instruction that the set of T-SQL instructions preceding the GO command should be sent to the server.

This means, for example, that the scope of a variable ends with the GO command.

GO is not a T-SQL command. It is just a batch separator. You can change it if you like - in SQL 2005, in Management Studio, in Tools -> Options -> Query Execution.

GO nnn can be used to indicate that the preceding batch should be executed nnn times. For example: