PostgreSQL next value of the sequences?

I am using PostgreSQL for my Codeigniter website. I am using grocery crud for add, edit and delete operations. While doing an edit or add, I want to rename an uploaded file dynamically based on the id of the content. I am able to do this using grocery crud's callback_after_upload function.

I want a next id of the content while adding a new content. I tried to use nextval() function, but sequence gets incremented with it. How can get the last value of the sequence without using nextval() function?

Or is there a simple way I can do this?

Solution 1:

`RETURNING`

That's possible with a single round-trip to the database:

INSERT INTO tbl(filename)
VALUES ('my_filename')
RETURNING tbl_id;

tbl_id would typically be a serial or IDENTITY (Postgres 10 or later) column. More in the manual.

Explicitly fetch value

If filename needs to include tbl_id (redundantly), you can still use a single query.

Use lastval() or the more specific currval():

INSERT INTO tbl (filename)
VALUES ('my_filename' || currval('tbl_tbl_id_seq')   -- or lastval()
RETURNING tbl_id;

See:

Reference value of serial column in another column during same INSERT

If multiple sequences may be advanced in the process (even by way of triggers or other side effects) the sure way is to use currval('tbl_tbl_id_seq').

Name of sequence

The string literal 'tbl_tbl_id_seq' in my example is supposed to be the actual name of the sequence and is cast to regclass, which raises an exception if no sequence of that name can be found in the current search_path.

tbl_tbl_id_seq is the automatically generated default for a table tbl with a serial column tbl_id. But there are no guarantees. A column default can fetch values from any sequence if so defined. And if the default name is taken when creating the table, Postgres picks the next free name according to a simple algorithm.

If you don't know the name of the sequence for a serial column, use the dedicated function pg_get_serial_sequence(). Can be done on the fly:

INSERT INTO tbl (filename)
VALUES ('my_filename' || currval(pg_get_serial_sequence('tbl', 'tbl_id'))
RETURNING tbl_id;

db<>fiddle here
_{Old sqlfiddle}

Solution 2:

The previously obtained value of a sequence is accessed with the currval() function.

But that will only return a value if nextval() has been called before that.

There is absolutely no way of "peeking" at the next value of a sequence without actually obtaining it.

But your question is unclear. If you call nextval() before doing the insert, you can use that value in the insert. Or even better, use currval() in your insert statement:

select nextval('my_sequence') ...

... do some stuff with the obtained value

insert into my_table(id, filename)
values (currval('my_sequence'), 'some_valid_filename');

Solution 3:

I stumbled upon this question b/c I was trying to find the next sequence value by table. This didn't answer my question however this is how its done, and it may help those looking for the sequence value not by name but by table:

SELECT nextval(pg_get_serial_sequence('<your_table>', 'id')) AS new_id;

Hope it helps :)

Solution 4:

If your are not in a session you can just nextval('you_sequence_name') and it's just fine.

Solution 5:

To answer your question literally, here's how to get the next value of a sequence without incrementing it:

SELECT
 CASE WHEN is_called THEN
   last_value + 1
 ELSE
   last_value
 END
FROM sequence_name

Obviously, it is not a good idea to use this code in practice. There is no guarantee that the next row will really have this ID. However, for debugging purposes it might be interesting to know the value of a sequence without incrementing it, and this is how you can do it.