Thread: Limit with serial

Hi I create a field this way
id_log serial NOT NULL

But my records will increment aproximately 500, 000 everyday

What is the maximum number of serial permits?

The type of my serial is int4.

Thanks in advanced

on 7/9/04 1:32 PM, Eduardo Vázquez Rodríguez at evazquez@insys-corp.com.mx
wrote:

> Hi I create a field this way
> id_log serial NOT NULL
>
> But my records will increment aproximately 500, 000 everyday
>
> What is the maximum number of serial permits?
>
> The type of my serial is int4.
>
> Thanks in advanced

Wow, a question *I* can actually answer! :-)

According to the table of numeric data types in the PostgreSQL 7.4 docs
(http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/interactive/datatype.html#DATATYPE-NUMER
IC-TABLE), the range for int4 is -2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647. So if
you're adding 500,000 new rows every day, you will hit the limit after 4295
days, or a little less than 12 years.

If you expect to be using this database longer than that, go with int8
instead.


Lynna

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