serial jumps

I have a user who complains frequently that certain serial columns take a jump for no reason (like from 3000+ to 250000+) . This person worries that they will wrap in production and make inserts fail. I suspect an errant program or a developer's fat finger in dbaccess. This is IDS 9.4 . Has anyone ever had any problem with a serial column jumping unexpectedly? Also is there a system table that shows the serials, or are they stored invisibly within each table? sending to informix-list

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 10:55:50 -0600, "Bill Hamilton" <laidback@finsco.com> wrote: > >I have a user who complains frequently that certain serial columns take >a jump for no reason (like from 3000+ to 250000+) . This person worries >that they will wrap in production and make inserts fail. > >I suspect an errant program or a developer's fat finger in dbaccess. >This is IDS 9.4 . > >Has anyone ever had any problem with a serial column jumping unexpectedly? > >Also is there a system table that shows the serials, or are they stored >invisibly within each table? >sending to informix-list sysmaster:sysptnhdr.serialv shows the serials. Only way they should jump is that someone is explicitly inserting a larger number into the column.

Bill Hamilton wrote: > I have a user who complains frequently that certain serial columns > take a jump for no reason (like from 3000+ to 250000+) . This person > worries that they will wrap in production and make inserts fail. > > I suspect an errant program or a developer's fat finger in dbaccess. > This is IDS 9.4 . > > Has anyone ever had any problem with a serial column jumping > unexpectedly? Unpossible. Someone is inserting a high value. Probably they think that it's "well outside the range of values so it won't interfere with users". However inserting a high value causes the next serial to be reset. Find the guilty party, stick 'em in a classroom, ... and slap 'em on the fat fingers with a wooden yardstick.