How to create a unique id for an existing table in PL SQL? - oracle

Question

The situation is that, when I import a file into the database, one of the first thing I usually do is to assign an unique ID for each record.
I normally do below in TSQL
ALTER TABLE MyTable
ADD ID INT IDENTITY(1,1)
I am wondering if there is something similar in PL SQL?
All my search result come back with multiple steps.
Then I'd like to know what PL SQL programmer typically do to ID records after importing a file. Do they do that?
The main purpose for me to ID these records is to trace it back after manipulation/copying.
Again, I understand there is solution there, my further question is whether PL SQL programmer actually do that, or there is other alternative which making this step not necessary in PL SQL?

Answer 1

OK then, as you're on Oracle 11g, there's no identity column there so - back to multiple steps. Here's an example:
I'm creating a table that simulates your imported table:
SQL> create table tab_import as
2 select ename, job, sal
3 from emp
4 where deptno = 10;
Table created.
Add the ID column:
SQL> alter table tab_import add id number;
Table altered.
Create a sequence which will be used to populate the ID column:
SQL> create sequence seq_imp;
Sequence created.
Update current rows:
SQL> update tab_import set
2 id = seq_imp.nextval;
3 rows updated.
Create a trigger which will take care about future inserts (if any):
SQL> create or replace trigger trg_bi_imp
2 before insert on tab_import
3 for each row
4 begin
5 :new.id := seq_imp.nextval;
6 end;
7 /
Trigger created.
Check what's in the table at the moment:
SQL> select * from tab_import;
ENAME JOB SAL ID
---------- --------- ---------- ----------
CLARK MANAGER 2450 1
KING PRESIDENT 5000 2
MILLER CLERK 1300 3
Let's import some more rows:
SQL> insert into tab_import (ename, job, sal)
2 select ename, job, sal
3 from emp
4 where deptno = 20;
3 rows created.
The trigger had silently populated the ID column:
SQL> select * From tab_import;
ENAME JOB SAL ID
---------- --------- ---------- ----------
CLARK MANAGER 2450 1
KING PRESIDENT 5000 2
MILLER CLERK 1300 3
SMITH CLERK 800 4
JONES MANAGER 2975 5
FORD ANALYST 3000 6
6 rows selected.
SQL>
Shortly: you need to
alter table and add the ID column
create a sequence
create a trigger
The end.

Answer 2

The answer given by #Littlefoot would be my recommendation too - but still I thought I could mention the following variant which will work only if you do not intend to add more rows to the table later.
ALTER TABLE MyTable add id number(38,0);
update MyTable set id = rownum;
commit;
My test:
SQL> create table tst as select * from all_tables;
Table created.
SQL> alter table tst add id number(38,0);
Table altered.
SQL> update tst set id = rownum;
3815 rows updated.
SQL> alter table tst add constraint tstPk primary key (id);
Table altered.
SQL>
SQL> select id from tst where id < 15;
ID
----------
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
ID
----------
12
13
14
14 rows selected.
But as mentioned initially,- this only fixes numbering for the rows you have at the time of the update - your'e not going to get new id values for new rows anytime later - if you need that, go for the sequence solution.

Answer 3

You can add an id column to a table with a single statement (Oracle 11g, see dbfiddle):
alter table test_
add id raw( 16 ) default sys_guid() ;
Example:
-- create a table without an id column
create table test_ ( str )
as
select dbms_random.string( 'x', 16 )
from dual
connect by level <= 10 ;
select * from test_ ;
STR
ULWL9EXFG6CIO72Z
QOM0W1R9IJ2ZD3DW
YQWAP4HZNQ57C2UH
EETF2AXD4ZKNIBBF
W9SECJYDER793MQW
alter table test_
add id raw( 16 ) default sys_guid() ;
select * from test_ ;
STR ID
ULWL9EXFG6CIO72Z 0x782C6EBCAE2D7B9FE050A00A02005D65
QOM0W1R9IJ2ZD3DW 0x782C6EBCAE2E7B9FE050A00A02005D65
YQWAP4HZNQ57C2UH 0x782C6EBCAE2F7B9FE050A00A02005D65
EETF2AXD4ZKNIBBF 0x782C6EBCAE307B9FE050A00A02005D65
W9SECJYDER793MQW 0x782C6EBCAE317B9FE050A00A02005D65
Testing
-- Are the id values unique and not null? Yes.
alter table test_
add constraint pkey_test_ primary key ( id ) ;
-- When we insert more rows, will the id be generated? Yes.
begin
for i in 1 .. 100
loop
insert into test_ (str) values ( 'str' || to_char( i ) ) ;
end loop ;
end ;
/
select * from test_ order by id desc ;
-- last 10 rows of the result
STR ID
str100 0x782C806E16A5E998E050A00A02005D81
str99 0x782C806E16A4E998E050A00A02005D81
str98 0x782C806E16A3E998E050A00A02005D81
str97 0x782C806E16A2E998E050A00A02005D81
str96 0x782C806E16A1E998E050A00A02005D81
str95 0x782C806E16A0E998E050A00A02005D81
str94 0x782C806E169FE998E050A00A02005D81
str93 0x782C806E169EE998E050A00A02005D81
str92 0x782C806E169DE998E050A00A02005D81
str91 0x782C806E169CE998E050A00A02005D81
Regarding your other questions:
{1} Then I'd like to know what PL SQL programmer typically do to ID records after importing a file. Do they do that? The main purpose for me to ID these records is to trace it back after manipulation/copying.
-> As you know, the purpose of an id is: to identify a row. We don't "do anything to IDs". Thus, your usage of IDs seems legit.
{2} Again, I understand there is solution there, my further question is whether PL SQL programmer actually do that, or there is other alternative which making this step not necessary in PL SQL?
-> Not quite sure what you are asking here. Although there is a ROWID() pseudocolumn (see documentation), we should not use it to identify rows.
"You should not use ROWID as the primary key of a table. If you delete
and reinsert a row with the Import and Export utilities, for example,
then its rowid may change. If you delete a row, then Oracle may
reassign its rowid to a new row inserted later."