PostgreSQL function for last inserted ID

( tl;dr : goto option 3: INSERT with RETURNING )

Recall that in postgresql there is no "id" concept for tables, just sequences (which are typically but not necessarily used as default values for surrogate primary keys, with the SERIAL pseudo-type).

If you are interested in getting the id of a newly inserted row, there are several ways:

Option 1: CURRVAL(<sequence name>);.

For example:

  INSERT INTO persons (lastname,firstname) VALUES ('Smith', 'John');
  SELECT currval('persons_id_seq');

The name of the sequence must be known, it's really arbitrary; in this example we assume that the table persons has an id column created with the SERIAL pseudo-type. To avoid relying on this and to feel more clean, you can use instead pg_get_serial_sequence:

  INSERT INTO persons (lastname,firstname) VALUES ('Smith', 'John');
  SELECT currval(pg_get_serial_sequence('persons','id'));

Caveat: currval() only works after an INSERT (which has executed nextval() ), in the same session.

Option 2: LASTVAL();

This is similar to the previous, only that you don't need to specify the sequence name: it looks for the most recent modified sequence (always inside your session, same caveat as above).

Both CURRVAL and LASTVAL are totally concurrent safe. The behaviour of sequence in PG is designed so that different session will not interfere, so there is no risk of race conditions (if another session inserts another row between my INSERT and my SELECT, I still get my correct value).

However they do have a subtle potential problem. If the database has some TRIGGER (or RULE) that, on insertion into persons table, makes some extra insertions in other tables... then LASTVAL will probably give us the wrong value. The problem can even happen with CURRVAL, if the extra insertions are done intto the same persons table (this is much less usual, but the risk still exists).

Option 3: INSERT with RETURNING 

INSERT INTO persons (lastname,firstname) VALUES ('Smith', 'John') RETURNING id;

This is the most clean, efficient and safe way to get the id. It doesn't have any of the risks of the previous.

Drawbacks? Almost none: you might need to modify the way you call your INSERT statement (in the worst case, perhaps your API or DB layer does not expect an INSERT to return a value); it's not standard SQL (who cares); it's available since Postgresql 8.2 (Dec 2006...)

Conclusion: If you can, go for option 3. Elsewhere, prefer 1.

Note: all these methods are useless if you intend to get the last inserted id globally (not necessarily by your session). For this, you must resort to SELECT max(id) FROM table (of course, this will not read uncommitted inserts from other transactions).

Conversely, you should never use SELECT max(id) FROM table instead one of the 3 options above, to get the id just generated by your INSERT statement, because (apart from performance) this is not concurrent safe: between your INSERT and your SELECT another session might have inserted another record.


Leonbloy's answer is quite complete. I would only add the special case in which one needs to get the last inserted value from within a PL/pgSQL function where OPTION 3 doesn't fit exactly.

For example, if we have the following tables:

CREATE TABLE person(
   id serial,
   lastname character varying (50),
   firstname character varying (50),
   CONSTRAINT person_pk PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE client (
    id integer,
   CONSTRAINT client_pk PRIMARY KEY (id),
   CONSTRAINT fk_client_person FOREIGN KEY (id)
       REFERENCES person (id) MATCH SIMPLE
);

If we need to insert a client record we must refer to a person record. But let's say we want to devise a PL/pgSQL function that inserts a new record into client but also takes care of inserting the new person record. For that, we must use a slight variation of leonbloy's OPTION 3:

INSERT INTO person(lastname, firstname) 
VALUES (lastn, firstn) 
RETURNING id INTO [new_variable];

Note that there are two INTO clauses. Therefore, the PL/pgSQL function would be defined like:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION new_client(lastn character varying, firstn character varying)
  RETURNS integer AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
   v_id integer;
BEGIN
   -- Inserts the new person record and retrieves the last inserted id
   INSERT INTO person(lastname, firstname)
   VALUES (lastn, firstn)
   RETURNING id INTO v_id;

   -- Inserts the new client and references the inserted person
   INSERT INTO client(id) VALUES (v_id);

   -- Return the new id so we can use it in a select clause or return the new id into the user application
    RETURN v_id;
END;
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;

Now we can insert the new data using: 

SELECT new_client('Smith', 'John');

or 

SELECT * FROM new_client('Smith', 'John');

And we get the newly created id.

new_client
integer
----------
         1

See the RETURNING clause of the INSERT statement. Basically, the INSERT doubles as a query and gives you back the value that was inserted.

Tags:

Postgresql

Insert

Lastinsertid

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