Re: BUG #3668: type error in serial

On Wednesday, October 10, 2007 2:32:17 PM UTC-7, Tom Lane wrote:
> "Eric Weimer" <eweimer(at)thelocalphonecompany(dot)net> writes:
> > Creating a table with a column of type serial causes the creation of a
> > sequence tied as the default value for the column.
> > The actual type of the column is integer, however the sequence created is of
> > type bigint. If the sequence is created as a bigint, then the column should
> > also be defined as bigint.
>
> This is not a bug, primarily because we have only one size of sequence.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
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I believe that the SERIAL type should set the MAXVALUE appropriately (that of a 32 bit number) because then it could give an error like "reached maximum value of sequence" rather than having people beating their heads against the wall because they can't figure out why they're getting an error of "integer out of range". That seems like a relatively minor change that could save people a LOT of headache.

Dave