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Databases & SQL vocabulary · Keys and Constraints

Auto-increment

Meaning in databases & SQL, with examples

adjectiveCommon term

In databases & SQL, auto-increment means: Describes a numeric column whose value the database fills in automatically with the next number in sequence each time a new row is added.

In Turkish: otomatik artan, kendiliğinden artan

How it is used

Mostly used for id columns that serve as surrogate keys. The keyword differs by product: AUTO_INCREMENT in MySQL, IDENTITY in SQL Server, SERIAL or GENERATED AS IDENTITY in PostgreSQL, and sequences in Oracle. Gaps in the numbers are normal after rollbacks and deletes.

Example sentences

  1. The id column is auto-increment, so don't send a value for it in the INSERT.

  2. Exposing auto-increment IDs in URLs lets anyone guess how many orders we have.

Common collocations

  • auto-increment column
  • auto-increment ID
  • identity column
  • sequence
  • primary keyA column, or a set of columns, whose value uniquely identifies each row in a table. It cannot be empty and no two rows can share it.
  • surrogate keyAn artificial key with no business meaning, such as an auto-increment number or a UUID, created only to identify each row.
  • INSERT statementThe SQL statement that adds one or more new rows to a table, using INSERT INTO followed by the column names and their values.
  • columnA vertical part of a table with a name and a data type, holding one kind of information for every row, such as email or created_at.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Keys and Constraints

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