Any time you create a database in SQL Server, two files are created. One is the data file, and the other is the transaction log file.

The location of these files will depend on whether or not you explicitly specify a location for these files when you create the database. If not, they will be created in the default location.

You can find the default location with the following code:

SELECT
  SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceDefaultDataPath') AS 'Data Files',
  SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceDefaultLogPath') AS 'Log Files'

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If you ever need to know where your database files are located, run the following T-SQL code:

USE master;
SELECT 
  name 'Logical Name', 
  physical_name 'File Location'
FROM sys.master_files;

This will return a list of all data files and log files for the SQL Server instance.

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If you’ve ever tried to insert values into an identity column in SQL Server, you might’ve seen an error like this:

Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table ‘Artists’ when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF.

This is normal. An identity column is there for a reason. It automatically populates the column with an incrementing value for each row that’s inserted. Therefore there’s no need for you to insert a value into that column.

However, sometimes you do need to insert a value into an identity column. For example, you could be populating the database with data that needs to retain its own identity values. If this is the case, you’ll need to override the IDENTITY property. Here’s how.

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