Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:44:37 -0500
From: Bruno Wolff III <bruno@wolff.to>
To: Michael Satterwhite <michael@weblore.com>
Cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Question re: serial
Message-ID: <20040424174437.GB19570@wolff.to>
Mail-Followup-To: Michael Satterwhite <michael@weblore.com>,
	pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
References: <200404241224.05079.michael@weblore.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <200404241224.05079.michael@weblore.com>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i

On Sat, Apr 24, 2004 at 12:24:03 -0500,
  Michael Satterwhite <michael@weblore.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> I have a table with a primary key defined as serial unique. When I insert a 
> row into the table, I need to get the value of that row back so that I can 
> use it to link rows in another table to it. How do I do that in Postgresql? I 
> know that I can define a sequence and insert the value manually, but is there 
> a way to query the value of the most recently inserted serial column of a 
> row?

When you use a serial type there a sequence is created for you. You
can reference the most recent value of that sequence within the current
session using currval.

You can use the \d command in psql to see what sequence is being used to
calculate the default value.