I have implemented random_id generation which solves 2 problems: (Link to explination: http://earnestberry.com/node/13 ) 1. Tables are NEVER locked when generating an id 2. ID, and there fore node (and id) generation is MUCH faster 3. It is non-sequential, so no issues with the sequencing getting out of sync. The only draw back is on the DB side.if you're writing stored procedures, you don't have a sequence or counter table to look at. However, one can easily solve this by implementing the methodology in a sp (stored-proc). _____ From: development-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Amr Mostafa Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:21 AM To: development@drupal.org Subject: Re: [development] Why do we avoid auto-incrementing db columns? I believe one of the reasons is that many times you want to know the ID of your new record. For example, you inserted a new file to the 'files' table, and you would like to store a reference to it in your xyz table. For mysql there is mysql_insert_id(), but not for others. On 4/25/07, Syscrusher <syscrusher@4th.com > wrote: On Wednesday 25 April 2007 10:29, Ezra B. Gildesgame wrote:
I happened to discuss this with Greg Knaddison yesterday. MySQL 4 does not support auto-incrementing columns.
I must respectfully disagree. I happened to have a copy of the MySQL reference book from version 3.22 sitting on my bookshelf, and AUTO_INCREMENT was supported even then. :-) Never mind the question of why I still have such an old book.... I also checked a PostgreSQL reference book, and they offer a SERIAL column type that works very similarly to the AUTO_INCREMENT in MySQL. I don't know how far back this support goes; my book is for PG version 8.something and was copyright 2006. I can't comment on the Microsoft SQL Server implementation of this, if any, because I don't have any manual for that here. Scott -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Syscrusher (Scott Courtney) Drupal page: http://drupal.org/user/9184 syscrusher at 4th dot com Home page: http://4th.com/ <http://4th.com/>