Why do I need to pass value for Serial type in Insert/Update?

[Duffey, Kevin]

I don't know if jdbc/java code requires this, but when I use two gui admin tools I found, and I insert a row into the table using their row editor feature, both require me to enter a number for the Serial type. I thought this type was used to auto-increment an id field and that I would not need to enter anything into it? Basically we need the normal indexed ID field for each table, and we want it to auto-increment. The serial shows a function of nextVal() or something like that, so I assume it auto-increments, and it shows unique and not-null. Can someone explain how serial is used, why would I still need to pass a value for it?

Thanks.

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[Martin Marques]

El Vie 12 Sep 2003 16:22, Duffey, Kevin escribió:

I don't know if jdbc/java code requires this, but when I use two gui admin
tools I found, and I insert a row into the table using their row editor
feature, both require me to enter a number for the Serial type. I thought
this type was used to auto-increment an id field and that I would not need
to enter anything into it? Basically we need the normal indexed ID field
for each table, and we want it to auto-increment. The serial shows a
function of nextVal() or something like that, so I assume it
auto-increments, and it shows unique and not-null. Can someone explain how
serial is used, why would I still need to pass a value for it?

You have to take it off the insert list of columns.

id serial
name varchar(30)

You would do:

INSERT INTO table (name) VALUES ('Martín')

and the id value would be taken as the dafault, which is the next value of the
sequence.

--
Porqué usar una base de datos relacional cualquiera,
si podés usar PostgreSQL?
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Martín Marqués | mm******@unl.ed u.ar
Programador, Administrador, DBA | Centro de Telematica
Universidad Nacional
del Litoral
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[Martin Marques]

El Vie 12 Sep 2003 16:22, Duffey, Kevin escribió:

I don't know if jdbc/java code requires this, but when I use two gui admin
tools I found, and I insert a row into the table using their row editor
feature, both require me to enter a number for the Serial type. I thought
this type was used to auto-increment an id field and that I would not need
to enter anything into it? Basically we need the normal indexed ID field
for each table, and we want it to auto-increment. The serial shows a
function of nextVal() or something like that, so I assume it
auto-increments, and it shows unique and not-null. Can someone explain how
serial is used, why would I still need to pass a value for it?

You have to take it off the insert list of columns.

id serial
name varchar(30)

You would do:

INSERT INTO table (name) VALUES ('Martín')

and the id value would be taken as the dafault, which is the next value of the
sequence.

--
Porqué usar una base de datos relacional cualquiera,
si podés usar PostgreSQL?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Martín Marqués | mm******@unl.ed u.ar
Programador, Administrador, DBA | Centro de Telematica
Universidad Nacional
del Litoral
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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[scott.marlowe]

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003, Duffey, Kevin wrote:

I don't know if jdbc/java code requires this, but when I use two gui
admin tools I found, and I insert a row into the table using their row
editor feature, both require me to enter a number for the Serial type.
I thought this type was used to auto-increment an id field and that I
would not need to enter anything into it? Basically we need the normal
indexed ID field for each table, and we want it to auto-increment. The
serial shows a function of nextVal() or something like that, so I assume
it auto-increments, and it shows unique and not-null. Can someone
explain how serial is used, why would I still need to pass a value for
it?

You can do this in a few ways.

create table test (id serial unique, info text, num int);
insert into test (info,num) values ('abc',123);
insert into test (id, info, num) values (DEFAULT,'abc', 123);
insert into test values (DEFAULT,'abc', 123);
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[scott.marlowe]

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003, Duffey, Kevin wrote:

I don't know if jdbc/java code requires this, but when I use two gui
admin tools I found, and I insert a row into the table using their row
editor feature, both require me to enter a number for the Serial type.
I thought this type was used to auto-increment an id field and that I
would not need to enter anything into it? Basically we need the normal
indexed ID field for each table, and we want it to auto-increment. The
serial shows a function of nextVal() or something like that, so I assume
it auto-increments, and it shows unique and not-null. Can someone
explain how serial is used, why would I still need to pass a value for
it?

You can do this in a few ways.

create table test (id serial unique, info text, num int);
insert into test (info,num) values ('abc',123);
insert into test (id, info, num) values (DEFAULT,'abc', 123);
insert into test values (DEFAULT,'abc', 123);
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