How to create id with AUTO_INCREMENT on Oracle?
There is no such thing as "auto_increment" or "identity" columns in Oracle as of Oracle 11g. However, you can model it easily with a sequence and a trigger:
Table definition:
CREATE TABLE departments (
ID NUMBER(10) NOT NULL,
DESCRIPTION VARCHAR2(50) NOT NULL);
ALTER TABLE departments ADD (
CONSTRAINT dept_pk PRIMARY KEY (ID));
CREATE SEQUENCE dept_seq START WITH 1;
Trigger definition:
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER dept_bir
BEFORE INSERT ON departments
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
SELECT dept_seq.NEXTVAL
INTO :new.id
FROM dual;
END;
/
UPDATE:
IDENTITY
column is now available on Oracle 12c:
create table t1 (
c1 NUMBER GENERATED by default on null as IDENTITY,
c2 VARCHAR2(10)
);
or specify starting and increment values, also preventing any insert into the identity column (GENERATED ALWAYS
) (again, Oracle 12c+ only)
create table t1 (
c1 NUMBER GENERATED ALWAYS as IDENTITY(START with 1 INCREMENT by 1),
c2 VARCHAR2(10)
);
Alternatively, Oracle 12 also allows to use a sequence as a default value:
CREATE SEQUENCE dept_seq START WITH 1;
CREATE TABLE departments (
ID NUMBER(10) DEFAULT dept_seq.nextval NOT NULL,
DESCRIPTION VARCHAR2(50) NOT NULL);
ALTER TABLE departments ADD (
CONSTRAINT dept_pk PRIMARY KEY (ID));
In Oracle 12c onward you could do something like,
CREATE TABLE MAPS
(
MAP_ID INTEGER GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY (START WITH 1 INCREMENT BY 1) NOT NULL,
MAP_NAME VARCHAR(24) NOT NULL,
UNIQUE (MAP_ID, MAP_NAME)
);
And in Oracle (Pre 12c).
-- create table
CREATE TABLE MAPS
(
MAP_ID INTEGER NOT NULL ,
MAP_NAME VARCHAR(24) NOT NULL,
UNIQUE (MAP_ID, MAP_NAME)
);
-- create sequence
CREATE SEQUENCE MAPS_SEQ;
-- create tigger using the sequence
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER MAPS_TRG
BEFORE INSERT ON MAPS
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (new.MAP_ID IS NULL)
BEGIN
SELECT MAPS_SEQ.NEXTVAL
INTO :new.MAP_ID
FROM dual;
END;
/
Here are three flavors:
- numeric. Simple increasing numeric value, e.g. 1,2,3,....
- GUID. globally univeral identifier, as a
RAW
datatype. - GUID (string). Same as above, but as a string which might be easier to handle in some languages.
x
is the identity column. Substitute FOO
with your table name in each of the examples.
-- numerical identity, e.g. 1,2,3...
create table FOO (
x number primary key
);
create sequence FOO_seq;
create or replace trigger FOO_trg
before insert on FOO
for each row
begin
select FOO_seq.nextval into :new.x from dual;
end;
/
-- GUID identity, e.g. 7CFF0C304187716EE040488AA1F9749A
-- use the commented out lines if you prefer RAW over VARCHAR2.
create table FOO (
x varchar(32) primary key -- string version
-- x raw(32) primary key -- raw version
);
create or replace trigger FOO_trg
before insert on FOO
for each row
begin
select cast(sys_guid() as varchar2(32)) into :new.x from dual; -- string version
-- select sys_guid() into :new.x from dual; -- raw version
end;
/
update:
Oracle 12c introduces these two variants that don't depend on triggers:
create table mytable(id number default mysequence.nextval);
create table mytable(id number generated as identity);
The first one uses a sequence in the traditional way; the second manages the value internally.
SYS_GUID
returns a GUID-- a globally unique ID. A SYS_GUID
is a RAW(16)
. It does not generate an incrementing numeric value.
If you want to create an incrementing numeric key, you'll want to create a sequence.
CREATE SEQUENCE name_of_sequence
START WITH 1
INCREMENT BY 1
CACHE 100;
You would then either use that sequence in your INSERT
statement
INSERT INTO name_of_table( primary_key_column, <<other columns>> )
VALUES( name_of_sequence.nextval, <<other values>> );
Or you can define a trigger that automatically populates the primary key value using the sequence
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER trigger_name
BEFORE INSERT ON table_name
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
SELECT name_of_sequence.nextval
INTO :new.primary_key_column
FROM dual;
END;
If you are using Oracle 11.1 or later, you can simplify the trigger a bit
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER trigger_name
BEFORE INSERT ON table_name
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
:new.primary_key_column := name_of_sequence.nextval;
END;
If you really want to use SYS_GUID
CREATE TABLE table_name (
primary_key_column raw(16) default sys_guid() primary key,
<<other columns>>
)