Sequences without blank holes

Hi guys,

I have been using the following table (short, short,
short version):

CREATE TABLE products (
prod_id SERIAL,
description TEXT
);

BUT, there is lots os users blaming because the holes
in the [prod_id] field (and, of course it as supposed
to be like this, because sequences only increase their
values and never rollback).

So, a real SELECT statement would return:

$ select * from products;
prod_id | description
--------+---------------------
1 | S470DXBLM
12 | S470DXABM
33 | RG250DX
--------+---------------------
(3 rows)

and it is ok to me, but not to the users.

How can I assure a ''sequence WITHOUT holes''?

Sequences?? Triggers?? Functions??

IF I had ``very few lines'' on the table, ``very few
users'' AND it was a kidding software, I would use:

$ SELECT max(prod_id)+1 FROM products;

to know the values of the next prod_id, but I really
think it is not the best way to do that.

Could you help me in this way??

Thanks in advances and
Best Regards,

Marcelo Pereira
PHP/SQL/PostgreSQL
Universidade Estadual de Campinas
São Paulo / Brazil

Yahoo! Mail - 6MB, anti-spam e antivírus gratuito. Crie sua conta agora:
http://mail.yahoo.com.br