Re: [GENERAL] using ID as a key

kaiq@realtyideas.com wrote:
>
> On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Ed Loehr wrote:
>
> > These are resolvable problems.  One way to do a programmatic ID
> > generation as David B. suggests is to have a DB server whose purpose
> > is to issue "seed numbers" which designate, through use of a
> > pre-determined multiplier, a *range* of allocated IDs guaranteed to be
> > unique across all seed requesters.  This avoids both of the problems
> > raised above (throughput and synchronization).
>
> sounds familiar -- the seed server can be pg, and other servers can be
> user-program, and pg's sequence can do this already.

Yes, coincidentally, very similar to sequence cache functionality in
principle, as someone pointed out. [Wish I'd had those sequence
objects when we did the implementation...]

> and, it seems not "programmatically at all.

What would make it "programmatic" in my view would be calling a
function, as in "$newID = GetNewID()", prior to INSERT and then using
the returned ID value in your INSERT, rather than using a 'default
nextval' to get the value.  I don't see why one wouldn't want to use a
sequence object within GetNewID(), FWIW.  But sounds like it is not
the kind of programmatic example/explanation you were looking for...

Cheers,
Ed Loehr