Re: OID's

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, Leen Besselink wrote:

> Eddy Macnaghten zei:
> > I think you are correct in not using OIDs, as, firstly, as you point out
> > they are optional, also that they are not neccessarily unique.
> >
>
> I'm sorry Eddy, but you most be mistaken:
>
> Every row in POSTGRESQL is assigned a unique, normally invisible number
> called an object identification number (OID). When the software is
> initialized with initdb , 12.1 a counter is created and set to
> approximately seventeen-thousand. The counter is used to uniquely number
> every row. Although databases may be created and destroyed, the counter
> continues to increase.
>
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/aw_pgsql_book/node71.html

Actually it's the book that's mistaken. The counter can roll over, and
will on large databases (oids are only 4 bytes).