How do I create unique IDs for an existing set of records - Mailing list pgsql-sql

Hi-

There's got to be a simple way to do this, but it's eluding me so far...

I have a table that is already populated with about 600,000 rows.

I have created a new unique id field for it. (alter table test add new_pk
int8 not null;)

I have also createtd a sequence (create sequence test_new_pk)

Now I want to populate the key for all of the existing records.

I tried:

update test set new_pk = (select nextval('test_new_pk_seq'));

but it wants to update *all* of the rows to the current nextval (I was
hoping it would evaluate nextval on each row).

How do I write an update to assign a sequential id for the existing records?

Any ideas appreciated!

-Nick

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Nick Fankhauser  nickf@ontko.com  Phone 1.765.935.4283  Fax 1.765.962.9788
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