User-specific sequences

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  • D. Dante Lorenso

    User-specific sequences

    In a previous thread, it was determined that rather than
    use a table sequence for my primary key, I might consider
    using a compound primary key of customer_id and customer_seq
    where the customer_seq would be a sequence starting at say
    1 and counting for each user separately ... thereby making
    it difficult to guess the maximum total number of rows in a
    table by simply seeing the currval of the table's sequence.

    My question is...what is the best way to implement this?

    ----

    1) Have a table which stores the current sequence value for
    each customer and perform an update each time an id is pulled?

    ...
    SELECT customer_seq INTO my_customer_seq
    FROM customer_seq_ta ble
    WHERE customer_id = in_customer_id
    FOR UPDATE;

    UPDATE customer_seq_ta ble
    SET customer_seq = customer_seq + 1
    WHERE customer_id = in_customer_id;

    RETURN (my_customer_se q);
    ...

    I guess the FOR UPDATE gives me the row-level lock I need to
    ensure that I avoid the race condition between read and update?

    ----

    2) Use max value in table plus one...

    INSERT INTO some_table (customer_id, customer_seq, ...)
    VALUES (in_customer_id ,
    (
    SELECT MAX(customer_se q)
    FROM some_table
    WHERE customer_id = in_customer_id
    ), ... );

    I like this approach because I don't have to maintain a separate
    table, but it might be a lot slower. I don't know if it's safe
    from the race condition problem of simultaneous reads, though.

    ----

    3) Something else I haven't thought of...

    ----
    With the sequences built into PostgreSQL, I can use functions like
    CURRVAL and NEXTVAL and I'm guaranteed thread-safety, right? I'd
    like my solution to have some of these features as well since common
    usage will have this PK (customer_id, customer_seq) be an
    auto-generated field which I'll also be using as a foreign key and
    so need to retrieve the value as soon as it gets created.

    Anybody got a good, clean solution that doesn't involve a lot of
    table/trigger/function surgery? If it's clean, I might employ the
    technique on other tables as well and so I'd rather avoid having
    5 functions, 3 triggers, and 2 new tables everytime I need to do
    something like this.

    ----------
    Dante










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  • Chris Ochs

    #2
    Re: User-specific sequences

    Here is a function I use to generate unique order id's. In a multi -
    merchant system we prefix the order id with the merchant's id. This gives
    us system wide and per merchant unique order id's. Sequences are nice but
    not when you don't want possible skips in sequence. This function
    initializes the order id if it doesn't exist also.

    CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_orderid(var char) returns numeric AS '
    DECLARE
    in_mer_id ALIAS FOR $1;
    next_order_id numeric;
    new_order_id numeric;
    BEGIN
    next_order_id := order_id FROM last_orderid WHERE mer_id = in_mer_id FOR
    UPDATE;
    IF next_order_id < 1 THEN
    new_order_id := 10000000;
    INSERT into last_orderid(me r_id,order_id)
    VALUES(in_mer_i d,new_order_id) ;
    RETURN new_order_id;
    ELSE
    UPDATE last_orderid SET order_id=(order _id + 1) WHERE mer_id =
    in_mer_id;
    RETURN next_order_id;
    END IF;
    END
    ' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';



    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "D. Dante Lorenso" <dante@lorenso. com>
    To: <pgsql-general@postgre sql.org>
    Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 12:27 PM
    Subject: [GENERAL] User-specific sequences

    [color=blue]
    > In a previous thread, it was determined that rather than
    > use a table sequence for my primary key, I might consider
    > using a compound primary key of customer_id and customer_seq
    > where the customer_seq would be a sequence starting at say
    > 1 and counting for each user separately ... thereby making
    > it difficult to guess the maximum total number of rows in a
    > table by simply seeing the currval of the table's sequence.
    >
    > My question is...what is the best way to implement this?
    >
    > ----
    >
    > 1) Have a table which stores the current sequence value for
    > each customer and perform an update each time an id is pulled?
    >
    > ...
    > SELECT customer_seq INTO my_customer_seq
    > FROM customer_seq_ta ble
    > WHERE customer_id = in_customer_id
    > FOR UPDATE;
    >
    > UPDATE customer_seq_ta ble
    > SET customer_seq = customer_seq + 1
    > WHERE customer_id = in_customer_id;
    >
    > RETURN (my_customer_se q);
    > ...
    >
    > I guess the FOR UPDATE gives me the row-level lock I need to
    > ensure that I avoid the race condition between read and update?
    >
    > ----
    >
    > 2) Use max value in table plus one...
    >
    > INSERT INTO some_table (customer_id, customer_seq, ...)
    > VALUES (in_customer_id ,
    > (
    > SELECT MAX(customer_se q)
    > FROM some_table
    > WHERE customer_id = in_customer_id
    > ), ... );
    >
    > I like this approach because I don't have to maintain a separate
    > table, but it might be a lot slower. I don't know if it's safe
    > from the race condition problem of simultaneous reads, though.
    >
    > ----
    >
    > 3) Something else I haven't thought of...
    >
    > ----
    > With the sequences built into PostgreSQL, I can use functions like
    > CURRVAL and NEXTVAL and I'm guaranteed thread-safety, right? I'd
    > like my solution to have some of these features as well since common
    > usage will have this PK (customer_id, customer_seq) be an
    > auto-generated field which I'll also be using as a foreign key and
    > so need to retrieve the value as soon as it gets created.
    >
    > Anybody got a good, clean solution that doesn't involve a lot of
    > table/trigger/function surgery? If it's clean, I might employ the
    > technique on other tables as well and so I'd rather avoid having
    > 5 functions, 3 triggers, and 2 new tables everytime I need to do
    > something like this.
    >
    > ----------
    > Dante
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
    > TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command
    > (send "unregister YourEmailAddres sHere" to majordomo@postg resql.org)
    >[/color]


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