Re: Why Oracle don't have AUTO_INCREMENT as in MySQL

On Apr 15, 8:28 am, Galen Boyer <galen_bo..._at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Apr 2007, sybra..._at_hccnet.nl wrote:
> > On 15 Apr 2007 01:12:05 -0700, "howa" <howac..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>On 4??15??, ?U??12??04??, "Fuzzy" <fuzzy.greybe..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> On Apr 14, 7:27 am, "howa" <howac..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> > Seems AUTO_INCREMENT is very handy and natural, anyone agree?
>
> >>> Seems SEQUENCE is very handy and natural. Why don't others
> >>> implement SEQUENCE?
>
> >>> /Hans
>
> >>I can't agree SEQUENCE is more handy than AUTO_INCREMENT as you need
> >>to do the same thing by two statements.
>
> >>Also, in real world, use of AUTO_INCREMENT as primary key (e.g. id) is
> >>in fact, quite intuitive.
>
> > My, my, typing two statements instead of one! What a problem!
>
> Using them in practice is not even close to just typing two statements
> or do your users actually log into SQLPlus and type "two statements".
> You either have to create a trigger that assigns the next PK using a
> sequence or, in every single insert you have to reference the
> sequence.nextval function call. Ease of implementation is not an
> argument for sequences, at all.
>
>
>
> > SEQUENCE is quite handy, as it is allows for multiple, similar tables
> > with ONE surrogate.
>
> This is my # 1 reason sequences win this argument.
>
> > Also, in real world, AUTO_INCREMENT is equally artificial as SEQUENCE.
>
> > But if you want to stick to Mickeysoft products, and don't want to
> > admit the Oracle solution is better, you are by all means invited to
> > do so.
>
> What Oracle should do is extend the sequence and provide an
> AUTO-INCREMENT feature using them. Until they do, the fact that in the
> definition of the table can be used to define how the PK gets its
> surrogate value is point blank, easier to implement because it is less
> coding, and this coming from a guy who hates the limitations of the
> AUTO-INCREMENT from Sybase and SQLServer.
>
> --
> Galen Boyer

I have to admit that I'd like to see Oracle provide a declarative way to link SEQUENCE to a column. Best of both worlds.

Then again, I'd really like to see a lot more delarative stuff in Oracle: declare the domain for a column to be in table X column Y is another example.

(And yes, foreign key and domain can be similar so there is a potential overlap. But they are not exactly the same ... in my mind.) Received on Sun Apr 15 2007 - 13:18:56 CDT