Lara Kannan

What a "GO" statement do in T-SQL ?

By definition it is a batch separator. It will run a batch and commit it. But along with that it also accepts one parameter which tells the SQL engine basically how many times to do the job.

For Example:

SELECT * FROM   sys.objects;
GO 3

It will show the output THREE times :)

Note: "GO" is the keyword used by SSMS to separate query batches. It can be configured in this location:

Tools » Options » Query Execution » SQL Server » General. Change the value for "Batch Separator:" in the right pane.

To see the immediate effect of this change, you need to close all query windows in the current session and open new query window.


Next Example:

IF EXISTS (SELECT 1
           FROM   tempdb.sys.objects
           WHERE  name LIKE '%#ProductTable%')
DROP TABLE #ProductTable;
 
CREATE TABLE #ProductTable
(
    ID INT IDENTITY (1, 1),
    Name VARCHAR (50)
);  
GO

INSERT  INTO #ProductTable (Name) VALUES  ('Office XP'); 
GO 3
 
SELECT * FROM #ProductTable;

OUTPUT:

Hope this helps you and thanks to SQLLion.