Thanks for the reply, Rick. I was using identify columns, but then found that Oracle does not support identity columns, only sequences. Since I'm looking for cross-database portability, I'm sticking with sequences - I'm using Hibernate, and it will automatically choose between a sequence and using a table to simulate a sequence based on capabilities of the DB.
Ryan > From: Rick Hillegas <rick.hille...@oracle.com> Subject: Re: Sequences as default values for a column Hi Ryan, I don't know whether you have considered identity columns. Identity columns may give you what you need. See the Derby Reference Guide topics " CREATE TABLE statement" -> "column-definition" -> "generated-column-spec". Right now, identity columns provide less concurrency than sequences do. However, identity columns should catch up to sequences in 10.8.2 due to the work on https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/DERBY-4437 Hope this helps, -Rick On 7/8/11 12:59 PM, Ryan McFall wrote: >From what I can see in the Derby documentation, it's not possible to specify the value of a sequence as the default value for a column. Is my reading of this correct? I've seen solutions online for Oracle, which also supports sequences, that suggest using a before insert trigger to modify the value of a column with a sequence value if the value is not specified. This seems like it's more work than it should be; specifying it as a default in the table definition makes much more sense to me. Thanks for any insights you have, Ryan -- Ryan McFall Associate Professor of Computer Science Hope College Holland, MI 49423 Email: mcf...@hope.edu Phone: 616-395-7952 Fax: 616-395-7123 http://www.hope.edu/cs/mcfall/
