Re: [HACKERS] Serial Data Type

Thus spake David Hartwig
> I have a couple minor issues  regarding the 6.4 implementation of the
> SERIAL data type.    I like the ease of using the serial data type and I
> suspect it will be used frequently base on the number of inquiries over
> the past months.
> 
> 1. Should the sequence created by the serial type declaration, be
> dropped as a result of dropping the parent table?

Sounds like a good idea.

> 2.  Can a declared serial column be also a primary key?   If so, what
> will be the side effected?   Specifically, how will the unique index be
> named?   The ODBC driver uses the {relname}_pkey to identify the primary
> key of a table.  The driver must be able to identify primary keys.

I suspect that the serial field will be the primary key 99% of the time.
I hope it can be.

As for finding the primary, with the new changes we should be able
to do something like this.

SELECT pg_class.relname, pg_attribute.attname
    FROM pg_class, pg_attribute, pg_index
    WHERE pg_class.oid = pg_attribute.attrelid AND
        pg_class.oid = pg_index.indrelid AND
        pg_index.indkey[0] = pg_attribute.attnum AND
        pg_index.indisprimary = 't';

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@{druid|vex}.net>   |  Democracy is three wolves
http://www.druid.net/darcy/                |  and a sheep voting on
+1 416 424 2871     (DoD#0082)    (eNTP)   |  what's for dinner.