Re: [Bug 11270] New: Interaction between in-line keys and key generators

On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 4:20 AM, Jeremy Orlow <jorlow@chromium.org> wrote:
> What would we do if what they provided was not an integer?

The behavior isn't very important; throwing would be fine here.  In
mySQL, you can only put AUTO_INCREMENT on columns in the integer
family.


> What happens if
> the number they insert is so big that the next one causes overflow?

The same thing that happens if you do ++ on a variable holding a
number that's too large.  Or, more directly, the same thing that
happens if you somehow fill up a table to the integer limit (probably
deleting rows along the way to free up space), and then try to add a
new row.


> What is
> the use case for this?  Do we really think that most of the time users do
> this it'll be intentional and not just a mistake?

A big one is importing some data into a live table.  Many smaller ones
are related to implicit data constraints that exist in the application
but aren't directly expressed in the table.  I've had several times
when I could normally just rely on auto-numbering for something, but
occasionally, due to other data I was inserting elsewhere, had to
specify a particular id.

~TJ

Received on Thursday, 11 November 2010 15:42:16 UTC