From: Richard Huxton <dev@archonet.com>
To: Jim C. Nasby <jnasby@pervasive.com>
Cc: Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: fmiddleton@verizon.net
Cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Why doesn't the SERIAL data type automatically have a
Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2005 00:23:23 +0100
Message-ID: <43430EEB.80500@archonet.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20051004225250.GN40138@pervasive.com>
References: <4338961E.20100@verizon.net>
<5899.1127782998@sss.pgh.pa.us>
<1127835194.29347.12.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
<20051004225250.GN40138@pervasive.com>
Jim C. Nasby wrote:
>>>>Is there some reason why the SERIAL data type doesn't automatically have
>>>>a UNIQUE CONSTRAINT.
>>>
>>>It used to, and then we decoupled it.
[snip]
> Arguably it would have been better to make the default case add either
> UNIQUE or PRIMARY KEY with a way to over-ride.
Arguably SERIAL shouldn't be a type at all since it's nothing to do with
defining a set of values. If you were being clean about it you'd have to
have something like "mycol INTEGER SERIAL UNIQUE", then wire SERIAL to a
generator function for the type in question.
> 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?
Don't forget the NOT NULL too. Perhaps simpler to have a PGIDENT
pseudo-type that implies "UNIQUE NOT NULL" and then explain the
difference in the docs.
--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd
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Cc: dev@archonet.com, jnasby@pervasive.com, smarlowe@g2switchworks.com, tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us, fmiddleton@verizon.net
Subject: Re: Why doesn't the SERIAL data type automatically have a
In-Reply-To: <43430EEB.80500@archonet.com>
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