Thread: OID - constantly increasing/ what about the gaps?

OID - constantly increasing/ what about the gaps?

From
"Thomas Weholt"
Date:
Hi,
 
A simple, almost stupid, question :
 
Does the OIDs allways, without exception no matter what I do, increase?
If I insert a lot of records, delete some of them, inserted more the OID would be :
 
( about ) 18000 + number of inserted + more records
 
I mean, the gaps from the deleted records won`t be filled? So I can use this as a measure for new records for example. I could keep track of OIDs when users access a page generated with data from my database, when they return I give them all the rows with OIDs higher than the one I stored at their last visit.
 
Do I make sense? Damn, I`m tired!
 
Thanks anyway.
 
Thomas
 
 

Re: OID - constantly increasing/ what about the gaps?

From
Martijn van Oosterhout
Date:
Thomas Weholt wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> A simple, almost stupid, question :
>
> Does the OIDs allways, without exception no matter what I do,
> increase?

Maybe, but maybe not. Consider them opaque object with no other
meaning.

> If I insert a lot of records, delete some of them, inserted more the
> OID would be :
>
> ( about ) 18000 + number of inserted + more records
>
> I mean, the gaps from the deleted records won`t be filled? So I can
> use this as a measure for new records for example. I could keep track
> of OIDs when users access a page generated with data from my database,
> when they return I give them all the rows with OIDs higher than the
> one I stored at their last visit.
>
> Do I make sense? Damn, I`m tired!

Maybe you want a sequence or the serial type?

--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@cupid.suninternet.com>
http://cupid.suninternet.com/~kleptog/