From 839cea8814ca8fc19aed01eface17c4ec9466218 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Tom Lane Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 04:52:21 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Minor copy-editing. --- doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml | 24 +++++++++++++----------- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml index 1d012e5f8a..3f24c503f4 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ @@ -682,7 +682,7 @@ NUMERIC The data types serial and bigserial are not true types, but merely - a notational convenience for setting up identifier columns + a notational convenience for setting up unique identifier columns (similar to the AUTO_INCREMENT property supported by some other databases). In the current implementation, specifying @@ -722,10 +722,10 @@ CREATE TABLE tablename ( - To use a serial column to insert the next value of - the sequence into the table, specify that the serial - column should be assigned the default value. This can be done - either be excluding from the column from the list of columns in + To insert the next value of the sequence into the serial + column, specify that the serial + column should be assigned its default value. This can be done + either by excluding the column from the list of columns in the INSERT statement, or through the use of the DEFAULT keyword. @@ -741,8 +741,8 @@ CREATE TABLE tablename ( - The sequence created by a serial type is - automatically dropped when the owning column is dropped and + The sequence created for a serial column is + automatically dropped when the owning column is dropped, and cannot be dropped otherwise. (This was not true in PostgreSQL releases before 7.3. Note that this automatic drop linkage will not occur for a sequence @@ -751,9 +751,11 @@ CREATE TABLE tablename ( dependency link.) Furthermore, this dependency between sequence and column is made only for the serial column itself; if any other columns reference the sequence (perhaps by manually - calling the nextval) function), they may be broken - if the sequence is removed. Using serial columns in - fashion is considered bad form. + calling the nextval function), they will be broken + if the sequence is removed. Using a serial column's sequence + in such a fashion is considered bad form; if you wish to feed several + columns from the same sequence generator, create the sequence as an + independent object.