Re: SERIAL type feature request

Am Samstag, den 03.12.2005, 22:23 +0100 schrieb Zoltan Boszormenyi:
> Hi!
>
> I would like to add an entry to PostgreSQL 8.2 TODO:
> - Extend SERIAL to a full-featured auto-incrementer type.
>
> To achieve this, the following three requirements should be fulfilled:
>
> 1. The statement parser should be able to handle this:
>
> create table x (
> id serial(N),
> ...
> );
>
> and behind the scenes this would translate into the "create sequence ...
> start N"
> before creating the table.

why isnt N max_id? Or increment?
Sounds inconsistent. -1 on this.

> 2. Upon INSERTing to a serial column, explicitly given 0 value or
> 'default' keyword
> or omitted field (implicit default) should be interchangeable.

default and omit are these. 0 would be an error. -1 on this too.

> 3. When a serial field value is given in an INSERT or UPDATE statement
> and the value is larger the the current value of the sequence then the
> sequence
> should be modified accordingly.

sideeffects, raceconditions. -1 on this.

> This is the way Informix handles its serial type, although it doesn't seem
> to have a visible sequence bound to the serial column.

Sounds like this informix is seriously broken ;)

> Is it feasible in the 8.2 timeframe?

I hope not ;)