auto increment - PostgreSQL Autoincrement

Question

I'm switching from MySQL to PostgreSQL and was wondering how I can do autoincrement values. I saw in the PostgreSQL docs a datatype "serial", but I get syntax errors when using it (in v8.0).

Answer 1

Yes, SERIAL is the equivalent function.

CREATE TABLE foo (
    id SERIAL,
    bar varchar
);

INSERT INTO foo (bar) VALUES ('blah');
INSERT INTO foo (bar) VALUES ('blah');

SELECT * FROM foo;

+----------+
| 1 | blah |
+----------+
| 2 | blah |
+----------+

SERIAL is just a create table time macro around sequences. You can not alter SERIAL onto an existing column.