No, not if your purpose is just to get a sequential set of numbers in a column by default. I don't think they should have named it identity, I think they should have done something more like they did in Access and call it an AutoNumber field, since that is what it really is. It becomes an identity once you set the primary key or unique index on it. Of course that wouldn't follow the SQL "standard" but neither does Microsoft's implementation of IDENTITY. (However it appears that this is one SQL feature that is commonly implemented differently, if at all.)