title: Manually implemented Identity column in SQL Server 2005
body: <p>I have a client that absolutely insists that their database should have no Identity columns, and has manually implemented his own incrementer in a stored procedure that creates table rows. It has been written so that the next ID value is determined and then used in an insert statement. Obviously this is vulnerable to a host of problems.</p>
  
  <p>So here's my question: Assuming that the usual, automatic, method is out of the question, what is the best way to implement an identity column in SQL?</p>