Re: [HACKERS] SERIAL data type

t-ishii@sra.co.jp (Tatsuo Ishii) writes:
> A few questions for new SERIAL data type:
>        [...]
> o explicit insertion to the serial column sets the value specified.
>   This is good. However, next implicit insertion results in that
>   previous value from the sequence + 1 is set.
>
>   create table t (c text, i serial);
>   insert into t values('a');
>   insert into t values('b',100);
>   insert into tvalues('c');
>   select * from t;
>
>    a   1
>    b    100
>    c    2
>
>   This seems a little bit unnatural for me. may be i of the thrid row
>   should be 101?

The action above is definitely 'not right'.  It is my opinion that either:

    1.  Explicit insertion into a serial column be dis-allowed.
    2.  If explicit insertion is allowed, then the sequence need to be set so
        the next implicit insertsion result in the last explicit insertion
        value + 1 being used (i.e. 101 instead of 2 in the example above).

Of these two options, I prefer #1.

Also, should we be able to specify a starting value for the sequence when the
table is created?  For example "create table t (c text, i serial(1000));" to
set the starting value of the sequence to 1000.
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