How do I setup Autonumbers in Snowflake?

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How do I setup Autonumbers in Snowflake?

Alejandro Penzini Answered question May 11, 2023
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In Snowflake, you can use the SEQUENCE object to create autonumbers. A SEQUENCE is an object that generates a sequence of numeric values based on a defined specification.

Here’s an example of how to create a SEQUENCE object in Snowflake and use it to generate autonumbers:

Create a SEQUENCE object:
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CREATE SEQUENCE my_sequence;
Use the NEXTVAL function to generate a new autonumber value:
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SELECT NEXTVAL(my_sequence);
This will return the first value in the sequence, which is typically 1.

Use the CURRVAL function to get the current value of the sequence:
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SELECT CURRVAL(my_sequence);
This will return the most recent value generated by the sequence.

Use the NEXTVAL function again to generate the next autonumber value:
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SELECT NEXTVAL(my_sequence);
This will return the next value in the sequence, which is typically 2.

You can use the SEQUENCE object in your tables to automatically generate unique autonumber values for new records. For example, you can create a table with an ID column that uses the NEXTVAL function to generate autonumbers:

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CREATE TABLE my_table (
id INTEGER DEFAULT NEXTVAL(my_sequence) PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(50)
);
In this example, the id column is defined with a default value of NEXTVAL(my_sequence), which means that every new record inserted into the my_table table will automatically generate a new autonumber value.

Note that you can also specify various options for the SEQUENCE object to customize its behavior, such as the starting value, the increment value, and the maximum value. For more information, refer to the Snowflake documentation on SEQUENCE objects.

Alejandro Penzini Changed status to publish July 4, 2023