create table Company (
    companyId int identity(1,1)
,   companyName varchar(100)
,   zipcode varchar(10) 
,   constraint PK_Company primary key (companyId)
)
GO

create table Person (
    personId int identity(1,1)
,   personName varchar(100)
,   companyId int
,   constraint FK_Person_CompanyId foreign key (companyId) references dbo.Company(companyId)
,   constraint PK_Person primary key (personId)
)
GO

insert Company
select 'ABC Company', '19808' union
select 'XYZ Company', '08534' union
select '123 Company', '10016'


insert Person
select 'Alan', 1 union
select 'Bobby', 1 union
select 'Chris', 1 union
select 'Xavier', 2 union
select 'Yoshi', 2 union
select 'Zambrano', 2 union
select 'Player 1', 3 union
select 'Player 2', 3 union
select 'Player 3', 3 


/* using CROSS APPLY */
select *
from Person p
cross apply (
    select *
    from Company c
    where p.companyid = c.companyId
) Czip

/* the equivalent query using INNER JOIN */
select *
from Person p
inner join Company c on p.companyid = c.companyId

       Can anyone give me a good example of when CROSS APPLY makes a difference in those cases where INNER JOIN will work as well?

• INNER JOIN vs. CROSS APPLY

SELECT  t1.*, t2o.*
FROM    t1
CROSS APPLY
        (
        SELECT  TOP 3 *
        FROM    t2
        WHERE   t2.t1_id = t1.id
        ORDER BY
                t2.rank DESC
        ) t2o

WITH    t2o AS
        (
        SELECT  t2.*, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY t1_id ORDER BY rank) AS rn
        FROM    t2
        )
SELECT  t1.*, t2o.*
FROM    t1
INNER JOIN
        t2o
ON      t2o.t1_id = t1.id
        AND t2o.rn <= 3

WITH    q AS
        (
        SELECT  *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY id) AS rn
        FROM    master
        ),
        t AS 
        (
        SELECT  1 AS id
        UNION ALL
        SELECT  2
        )
SELECT  *
FROM    t
JOIN    q
ON      q.rn <= t.id

WITH    t AS 
        (
        SELECT  1 AS id
        UNION ALL
        SELECT  2
        )
SELECT  *
FROM    t
CROSS APPLY
        (
        SELECT  TOP (t.id) m.*
        FROM    master m
        ORDER BY
                id
        ) q

Answer:

• @@IDENTITY returns the last identity value generated for any table in the current session, across all scopes. You need to be careful here, since it's across scopes. You could get a value from a trigger, instead of your current statement.
• SCOPE_IDENTITY() returns the last identity value generated for any table in the current session and the current scope. Generally what you want to use.
• IDENT_CURRENT('tableName') returns the last identity value generated for a specific table in any session and any scope. This lets you specify which table you want the value from, in case the two above aren't quite what you need (very rare). Also, as @Guy Starbuck mentioned, "You could use this if you want to get the current IDENTITY value for a table that you have not inserted a record into."
• The OUTPUT clause of the INSERT statement will let you access every row that was inserted via that statement. Since it's scoped to the specific statement, it's more straightforward than the other functions above. However, it's a little more verbose (you'll need to insert into a table variable/temp table and then query that) and it gives results even in an error scenario where the statement is rolled back. That said, if your query uses a parallel execution plan, this is the only guaranteed method for getting the identity (short of turning off parallelism). However, it is executed before triggers and cannot be used to return trigger-generated values.