SQL syntax for checking to see if an INSERT was successful?

Question

I'm working on a school assignment that wants me to insert some new values into a database table and then print a message based on whether or not the INSERT was successful. The question goes like this: Write a script that attempts to insert a new category named “Guitars” into the Categories table. If the insert is successful, the script should display this message: SUCCESS: Record was inserted. If the update is unsuccessful, the script should display a message something like this: FAILURE: Record was not inserted. Error 2627: Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'UQ_Categori_8517B2E0A87CE853'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'dbo.Categories'. The duplicate key value is (Guitars). Currently, this Categories table consists of 2 columns: CategoryID and Category name. It's populated with the values ``` 1 Guitars 2 Basses 3 Drums 4 Keyboards ``` Obviously the Guitars category that the question wants you to insert is already there, so I'm guessing the whole point of the question is to g…

Accepted Answer

I would use try/catch myself

```
begin try
insert query
print message
end try

begin catch
print message
end catch
```

You should be able to take it from here.

SQL syntax for checking to see if an INSERT was successful?

Solution

Problem