Output $action in a INSERT statement

Question

How do I output $action here for "INSERT"?

DECLARE @OutputTbl TABLE (Id int, FirstName nvarchar(50), City nvarchar(50))

INSERT @OutputTbl (Id, FirstName, City)
OUTPUT $ACTION
VALUES
(1,'John','Jackson')

SELECT * FROM @OutputTbl

Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Line 4 Invalid column name '$ACTION'.

Completion time: 2023-03-29T14:51:33.7353021-04:00

Answer 1

As Dale K has mentioned, and as stated in the documentation, $action is specific to MERGE as a MERGE can INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE.

$action
Is available only for the MERGE statement. Specifies a column of type nvarchar(10) in the OUTPUT clause in a MERGE statement that returns one of three values for each row: 'INSERT', 'UPDATE', or 'DELETE', according to the action that was performed on that row.

On the other hand, an INSERT can only do one thing; INSERT. So, just return that as a literal as you know what the action is:

DECLARE @OutputTbl TABLE (Id int,
                          FirstName nvarchar(50),
                          City nvarchar(50));

INSERT @OutputTbl (Id, FirstName, City)
OUTPUT N'INSERT'
VALUES (1,'John','Jackson');

SELECT *
FROM @OutputTbl;