CREATE SEQUENCE

CREATE SEQUENCE — define a new sequence generator.

Important

In PostgreSQL, specifying CACHE is optional and defaults to 1. In a distributed system such as Amazon Aurora DSQL, sequence operations involve coordination, and a cache size of 1 can increase coordination overhead under high concurrency. While larger cache values allow sequence numbers to be served from locally preallocated ranges, improving throughput, unused reserved values can be lost, making gaps and ordering effects more visible. Because applications differ in their sensitivity to allocation ordering versus throughput, Amazon Aurora DSQL requires CACHE to be specified explicitly and currently supports CACHE = 1 or CACHE >= 65536, providing a clear distinction between allocation behavior that is closer to strictly sequential generation and allocation optimized for highly concurrent workloads.

When CACHE >= 65536, sequence values remain guaranteed to be unique but might not be generated in strict increasing order across sessions, and gaps can occur, particularly when cached values are not fully consumed. These characteristics are consistent with PostgreSQL semantics for cached sequences under concurrent use, where both systems guarantee distinct values but do not guarantee strictly sequential ordering across sessions.

Within a single client session, sequence values may not always appear strictly increasing, particularly outside explicit transactions. This behavior is similar to PostgreSQL deployments that use connection pooling. Allocation behavior closer to a single-session PostgreSQL environment can be achieved by using CACHE = 1 or by obtaining sequence values within explicit transactions.

With CACHE = 1, sequence allocation follows PostgreSQL's non-cached sequence behavior.

For guidance on how best to use sequences based on workload patterns, see Working with sequences and identity columns.

Supported syntax

CREATE SEQUENCE [ IF NOT EXISTS ] name CACHE cache
    [ AS data_type ]
    [ INCREMENT [ BY ] increment ]
    [ MINVALUE minvalue | NO MINVALUE ] [ MAXVALUE maxvalue | NO MAXVALUE ]
    [ [ NO ] CYCLE ]
    [ START [ WITH ] start ]
    [ OWNED BY { table_name.column_name | NONE } ]

where data_type is BIGINT
      and cache = 1 or cache >= 65536

Description

CREATE SEQUENCE creates a new sequence number generator. This involves creating and initializing a new special single-row table with the name name. The generator will be owned by the user issuing the command.

If a schema name is given then the sequence is created in the specified schema. Otherwise it is created in the current schema. The sequence name must be distinct from the name of any other relation (table, sequence, index, view, materialized view, or foreign table) in the same schema.

After a sequence is created, you use the functions nextval, currval, and setval to operate on the sequence. These functions are documented in Sequence manipulation functions.

Although you cannot update a sequence directly, you can use a query like:

SELECT * FROM name;

to examine some of the parameters and current state of a sequence. In particular, the last_value field of the sequence shows the last value allocated by any session. (Of course, this value might be obsolete by the time it is printed, if other sessions are actively doing nextval calls.) Other parameters such as increment and maxvalue can be observed in the pg_sequences view.

Parameters

IF NOT EXISTS

Do not throw an error if a relation with the same name already exists. A notice is issued in this case. Note that there is no guarantee that the existing relation is anything like the sequence that would have been created — it might not even be a sequence.

name

The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the sequence to be created.

data_type

The optional clause AS data_type specifies the data type of the sequence. Valid types are bigint. bigint is the default. The data type determines the default minimum and maximum values of the sequence.

increment

The optional clause INCREMENT BY increment specifies which value is added to the current sequence value to create a new value. A positive value will make an ascending sequence, a negative one a descending sequence. The default value is 1.

minvalue / NO MINVALUE

The optional clause MINVALUE minvalue determines the minimum value a sequence can generate. If this clause is not supplied or NO MINVALUE is specified, then defaults will be used. The default for an ascending sequence is 1. The default for a descending sequence is the minimum value of the data type.

maxvalue / NO MAXVALUE

The optional clause MAXVALUE maxvalue determines the maximum value for the sequence. If this clause is not supplied or NO MAXVALUE is specified, then default values will be used. The default for an ascending sequence is the maximum value of the data type. The default for a descending sequence is -1.

CYCLE / NO CYCLE

The CYCLE option allows the sequence to wrap around when the maxvalue or minvalue has been reached by an ascending or descending sequence respectively. If the limit is reached, the next number generated will be the minvalue or maxvalue, respectively.

If NO CYCLE is specified, any calls to nextval after the sequence has reached its maximum value will return an error. If neither CYCLE or NO CYCLE are specified, NO CYCLE is the default.

start

The optional clause START WITH start allows the sequence to begin anywhere. The default starting value is minvalue for ascending sequences and maxvalue for descending ones.

cache

The clause CACHE cache specifies how many sequence numbers are to be preallocated and stored in memory for faster access. The acceptable values for CACHE in Aurora DSQL are 1 or any number >= 65536. The minimum value is 1 (only one value can be generated at a time, meaning no cache).

OWNED BY table_name.column_name / OWNED BY NONE

The OWNED BY option causes the sequence to be associated with a specific table column, such that if that column (or its whole table) is dropped, the sequence will be automatically dropped as well. The specified table must have the same owner and be in the same schema as the sequence. OWNED BY NONE, the default, specifies that there is no such association.

Notes

Use DROP SEQUENCE to remove a sequence.

Sequences are based on bigint arithmetic, so the range cannot exceed the range of an eight-byte integer (-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807).

Because nextval and setval calls are never rolled back, sequence objects cannot be used if "gapless" assignment of sequence numbers is needed.

Each session will allocate and cache successive sequence values during one access to the sequence object and increase the sequence object's last_value accordingly. Then, the next cache-1 uses of nextval within that session simply return the preallocated values without touching the sequence object. So, any numbers allocated but not used within a session will be lost when that session ends, resulting in "holes" in the sequence.

Furthermore, although multiple sessions are guaranteed to allocate distinct sequence values, the values might be generated out of sequence when all the sessions are considered. For example, with a cache setting of 10, session A might reserve values 1..10 and return nextval=1, then session B might reserve values 11..20 and return nextval=11 before session A has generated nextval=2. Thus, with a cache setting of one it is safe to assume that nextval values are generated sequentially; with a cache setting greater than one you should only assume that the nextval values are all distinct, not that they are generated purely sequentially. Also, last_value will reflect the latest value reserved by any session, whether or not it has yet been returned by nextval.

Another consideration is that a setval executed on such a sequence will not be noticed by other sessions until they have used up any preallocated values they have cached.

Examples

Create an ascending sequence called serial, starting at 101:

CREATE SEQUENCE serial CACHE 65536 START 101;

Select the next number from this sequence:

SELECT nextval('serial');

 nextval
---------
     101

Select the next number from this sequence:

SELECT nextval('serial');

 nextval
---------
     102

Use this sequence in an INSERT command:

INSERT INTO distributors VALUES (nextval('serial'), 'nothing');

Reset the sequence to a specific value using setval:

SELECT setval('serial', 200);
SELECT nextval('serial');

 nextval
---------
     201

Compatibility

CREATE SEQUENCE conforms to the SQL standard, with the following exceptions:

• Obtaining the next value is done using the nextval() function instead of the standard's NEXT VALUE FOR expression.

• The OWNED BY clause is a PostgreSQL extension.