Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 17:52:50 -0500
From: "Jim C. Nasby" <jnasby@pervasive.com>
To: Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, fmiddleton@verizon.net,
	pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Why doesn't the SERIAL data type automatically have a
Message-ID: <20051004225250.GN40138@pervasive.com>
References: <4338961E.20100@verizon.net> <5899.1127782998@sss.pgh.pa.us>
	<1127835194.29347.12.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
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On Tue, Sep 27, 2005 at 10:33:14AM -0500, Scott Marlowe wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-09-26 at 20:03, Tom Lane wrote:
> > Ferindo Middleton Jr <fmiddleton@verizon.net> writes:
> > > Is there some reason why the SERIAL data type doesn't automatically have 
> > > a UNIQUE CONSTRAINT.
> > 
> > It used to, and then we decoupled it.  I don't think "I have no use for
> > one without the other" translates to an argument that no one has a use
> > for it ...
> 
> I have to admit, right after the change was made, I was of the opinion
> that no one would ever need that.  Then, a few months later, it was
> exactly what I needed for some project...  :)

Arguably it would have been better to make the default case add either
UNIQUE or PRIMARY KEY with a way to over-ride.

If newbies are getting burned maybe it would be useful to toss a NOTICE
or maybe even WARNING when a serial is created without a unique
constraint of some kind?
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461