Re: Clarification of 'Sequences'

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998 10:08:18 -0400, "steve hendrikse" <shend_at_sar-net.com> wrote:

>Good Day,
>
>I have reasonable experience with both PostgreSQL and Micrsoft SQLServer.
>WIth both I can create a column in a table that automatically generates a
>unique count value. That is:
>
>in MSSQL, i do:
> create tabel test1(
> id int identity(1,1) not null,
> value varchar(80)
> );
>
>in PostgreSQL, it is slightly more complex, but similar to:
>
> create sequence seq_id start 1 increment 1;
> create table test2(
> id int4 default nextval('seq_id') not null,
> value varchar(80)
> );
>
>now, in Oracle 8.0.4 (on Solaris), i believe that i must do something
>similar to the PostgreSQL case. I start with:
>
> create sequence seq_id start with 1 increment by 1;
>
>and then (?????)
>
> create table
>
> id int default seq_id.nextval not null,
> value varchar(80)
> );
>
>but this gets me an error saying that i cannot include a column name
>(seq_id) in the table definition.
>
>now, i conclude that if both MSSQL and PostgreSQL can do this (as shown
>above) there has to be a 'graceful' way to get Oracle to do it also.
>
>please help!!!
>
>thanks in advance,
>steve
>

Unfortunately, when you're creating a table in Oracle, you can't define a column to be of auto-incrementing type. The column must be defined the normal way and the sequence used whenever a record is inserted. E.g.:

insert into table (id,value) values (seq_id.nextval,1);

Good luck,

Nuno Guerreiro

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"The art of arts, the glory of expression and the sunshine that lights the light of letters  is simplicity"

                                                        Walt Whitman Received on Wed Sep 30 1998 - 00:00:00 CDT