At 11/13/2000 06:22 PM -0800, Michael Teter wrote:
> Can someone show me how to
create (and use) an int8
> sequence?
From what I can tell (both from docs and doing a
describe on sequences in my database), a postgresql
sequence is an int4, not an int8, and thus you are
limited to a max of 2.1 billion values.
If you require an int8 sequence, you'll probably have
to manage your own and just use an int8 column.
I had originally started using int8 and creating custom
sequences. However, as mentioned in a previous post, there is
an inherent performance penalty in using int8 over int4. Tom
Lane advised me that the int8 routines are an emulated or synthesized
data type. in the test I did on our 7.0.2 server I notice about a
25-30% decrease in performance when using complex joins on tables
containing referential keys, primary keys all in the int8 data
type.
This might be something to think about as well.
