RE: Serial field and insert, maybe a very stupid question

An insert into a table with a serial column will have the highest serial value+1, that is all a serial column does, to ensure uniqueness you must an a unique index as well. A lot of people miss this part of it assuming a serial column also enforces unique values Regards Colin There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't Subject: Serial field and insert, maybe a very stupid questionDate: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:27:14 +0200From: Joerg@it-volz.deTo: informix-list@iiug.org Hy, I have two identical tables on two different IDS 10 Servers. Both tables look exactly the same, structure like that: create table tblSomething{ idxodbc serial, Textfield char(20) } Both tables have the same data, 12 rows with idbxodbc from 1 to 12 and some text in each row. 1 SomeText 2 Moretext ... 12 lasttext Now I did an INSERT INTO tbSomething -- working on Server1 SELECT * FROM database@Server2:tblSomething I expected to get a hit on my finger for writing exactly the same Values in a serial defined field, but the Insert just ran and I ended up with two rows with idxodbc=1, two rows with idxodbc=2 and so forth... 1 SomeText 1 SomeText 2 Moretext 2 Moretext ... 12 lasttext 12 lasttext Is this normal behaviour? I am very surprised, but it has been a long time since I tried to mess up with serial defined fields. (once with Online 4.x when I started Informix) regards, Joerg Volz IT Handel und Beratung Jörg VolzBernhard-Früh-Str. 777855 AchernGERMANY Tel: 07841-681651Fax: 07841-681654Mobil: 0170-2989757Ust-ID: DE201383541 http://www.it-volz.de _________________________________________________________________ Win a voice over part with Kung Fu Panda & Live Search   and   100’s of Kung Fu Panda prizes to win with Live Search http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/107571439/direct/01/