What's the PostgreSQL datatype equivalent to MySQL AUTO INCREMENT? - postgresql

Question

I'm switching from MySQL to PostgreSQL and I was wondering how can I have an INT column with AUTO INCREMENT. I saw in the PostgreSQL docs a datatype called SERIAL, but I get syntax errors when using it.

Answer 1

Yes, SERIAL is the equivalent function.
CREATE TABLE foo (
id SERIAL,
bar varchar
);
INSERT INTO foo (bar) VALUES ('blah');
INSERT INTO foo (bar) VALUES ('blah');
SELECT * FROM foo;
+----------+
| 1 | blah |
+----------+
| 2 | blah |
+----------+
SERIAL is just a create table time macro around sequences. You can not alter SERIAL onto an existing column.

Answer 2

You can use any other integer data type, such as smallint.
Example :
CREATE SEQUENCE user_id_seq;
CREATE TABLE user (
user_id smallint NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('user_id_seq')
);
ALTER SEQUENCE user_id_seq OWNED BY user.user_id;
Better to use your own data type, rather than user serial data type.

Answer 3

If you want to add sequence to id in the table which already exist you can use:
CREATE SEQUENCE user_id_seq;
ALTER TABLE user ALTER user_id SET DEFAULT NEXTVAL('user_id_seq');

Answer 4

Starting with Postgres 10, identity columns as defined by the SQL standard are also supported:
create table foo
(
id integer generated always as identity
);
creates an identity column that can't be overridden unless explicitly asked for. The following insert will fail with a column defined as generated always:
insert into foo (id)
values (1);
This can however be overruled:
insert into foo (id) overriding system value
values (1);
When using the option generated by default this is essentially the same behaviour as the existing serial implementation:
create table foo
(
id integer generated by default as identity
);
When a value is supplied manually, the underlying sequence needs to be adjusted manually as well - the same as with a serial column.
An identity column is not a primary key by default (just like a serial column). If it should be one, a primary key constraint needs to be defined manually.

Answer 5

Whilst it looks like sequences are the equivalent to MySQL auto_increment, there are some subtle but important differences:
1. Failed Queries Increment The Sequence/Serial
The serial column gets incremented on failed queries. This leads to fragmentation from failed queries, not just row deletions. For example, run the following queries on your PostgreSQL database:
CREATE TABLE table1 (
uid serial NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
col_b integer NOT NULL,
CHECK (col_b>=0)
);
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(-1);
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(2);
SELECT * FROM table1;
You should get the following output:
uid | col_b
-----+-------
1 | 1
3 | 2
(2 rows)
Notice how uid goes from 1 to 3 instead of 1 to 2.
This still occurs if you were to manually create your own sequence with:
CREATE SEQUENCE table1_seq;
CREATE TABLE table1 (
col_a smallint NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('table1_seq'),
col_b integer NOT NULL,
CHECK (col_b>=0)
);
ALTER SEQUENCE table1_seq OWNED BY table1.col_a;
If you wish to test how MySQL is different, run the following on a MySQL database:
CREATE TABLE table1 (
uid int unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
col_b int unsigned NOT NULL
);
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(1);
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(-1);
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(2);
You should get the following with no fragementation:
+-----+-------+
| uid | col_b |
+-----+-------+
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
+-----+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
2. Manually Setting the Serial Column Value Can Cause Future Queries to Fail.
This was pointed out by #trev in a previous answer.
To simulate this manually set the uid to 4 which will "clash" later.
INSERT INTO table1 (uid, col_b) VALUES(5, 5);
Table data:
uid | col_b
-----+-------
1 | 1
3 | 2
5 | 5
(3 rows)
Run another insert:
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(6);
Table data:
uid | col_b
-----+-------
1 | 1
3 | 2
5 | 5
4 | 6
Now if you run another insert:
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(7);
It will fail with the following error message:
ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique constraint "table1_pkey"
DETAIL: Key (uid)=(5) already exists.
In contrast, MySQL will handle this gracefully as shown below:
INSERT INTO table1 (uid, col_b) VALUES(4, 4);
Now insert another row without setting uid
INSERT INTO table1 (col_b) VALUES(3);
The query doesn't fail, uid just jumps to 5:
+-----+-------+
| uid | col_b |
+-----+-------+
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 |
+-----+-------+
Testing was performed on MySQL 5.6.33, for Linux (x86_64) and PostgreSQL 9.4.9

Answer 6

Sorry, to rehash an old question, but this was the first Stack Overflow question/answer that popped up on Google.
This post (which came up first on Google) talks about using the more updated syntax for PostgreSQL 10:
https://blog.2ndquadrant.com/postgresql-10-identity-columns/
which happens to be:
CREATE TABLE test_new (
id int GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
);
Hope that helps :)

Answer 7

You have to be careful not to insert directly into your SERIAL or sequence field, otherwise your write will fail when the sequence reaches the inserted value:
-- Table: "test"
-- DROP TABLE test;
CREATE TABLE test
(
"ID" SERIAL,
"Rank" integer NOT NULL,
"GermanHeadword" "text" [] NOT NULL,
"PartOfSpeech" "text" NOT NULL,
"ExampleSentence" "text" NOT NULL,
"EnglishGloss" "text"[] NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT "PKey" PRIMARY KEY ("ID", "Rank")
)
WITH (
OIDS=FALSE
);
-- ALTER TABLE test OWNER TO postgres;
INSERT INTO test("Rank", "GermanHeadword", "PartOfSpeech", "ExampleSentence", "EnglishGloss")
VALUES (1, '{"der", "die", "das", "den", "dem", "des"}', 'art', 'Der Mann küsst die Frau und das Kind schaut zu', '{"the", "of the" }');
INSERT INTO test("ID", "Rank", "GermanHeadword", "PartOfSpeech", "ExampleSentence", "EnglishGloss")
VALUES (2, 1, '{"der", "die", "das"}', 'pron', 'Das ist mein Fahrrad', '{"that", "those"}');
INSERT INTO test("Rank", "GermanHeadword", "PartOfSpeech", "ExampleSentence", "EnglishGloss")
VALUES (1, '{"der", "die", "das"}', 'pron', 'Die Frau, die nebenen wohnt, heißt Renate', '{"that", "who"}');
SELECT * from test;

Answer 8

In the context of the asked question and in reply to the comment by #sereja1c, creating SERIAL implicitly creates sequences, so for the above example-
CREATE TABLE foo (id SERIAL,bar varchar);
CREATE TABLE would implicitly create sequence foo_id_seq for serial column foo.id. Hence, SERIAL [4 Bytes] is good for its ease of use unless you need a specific datatype for your id.

Answer 9

Since PostgreSQL 10
CREATE TABLE test_new (
id int GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
payload text
);

Answer 10

This way will work for sure, I hope it helps:
CREATE TABLE fruits(
id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR NOT NULL
);
INSERT INTO fruits(id,name) VALUES(DEFAULT,'apple');
or
INSERT INTO fruits VALUES(DEFAULT,'apple');
You can check this the details in the next link:
http://www.postgresqltutorial.com/postgresql-serial/

Answer 11

Create Sequence.
CREATE SEQUENCE user_role_id_seq
INCREMENT 1
MINVALUE 1
MAXVALUE 9223372036854775807
START 3
CACHE 1;
ALTER TABLE user_role_id_seq
OWNER TO postgres;
and alter table
ALTER TABLE user_roles ALTER COLUMN user_role_id SET DEFAULT nextval('user_role_id_seq'::regclass);