autoinc

functions for autoincrementing fields
Repository
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/contrib-spi.html#CONTRIB-SPI-AUTOINC
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/contrib-spi.html#CONTRIB-SPI-AUTOINC

Overview

PackageVersionCategoryLicenseLanguage
autoinc1.0FUNCPostgreSQLC
IDExtensionBinLibLoadCreateTrustRelocSchema
4881autoincNoYesNoYesNoNo-
Relatedpg_idkit pgx_ulid pg_uuidv7 permuteseq pg_hashids sequential_uuids topn quantile

Version

PG18PG17PG16PG15PG14
1.01.01.01.01.0

Install

Note: This is a built-in contrib extension of PostgreSQL

CREATE EXTENSION autoinc;

Usage

autoinc: auto-increment trigger function

Provides a trigger function that auto-increments specified columns using sequences.

CREATE EXTENSION autoinc;

Trigger Function

FunctionDescription
autoinc()Auto-increment columns from sequences on insert (and optionally update)

Parameters are pairs of (column name, sequence name). The value is replaced only if initially zero or NULL.

Examples

CREATE SEQUENCE next_id;
CREATE TABLE ids (id int4, idesc text);

CREATE TRIGGER ids_autoinc
  BEFORE INSERT ON ids
  FOR EACH ROW
  EXECUTE FUNCTION autoinc('id', 'next_id');

INSERT INTO ids (idesc) VALUES ('first');  -- id is auto-assigned from next_id

-- Multiple auto-increment columns
CREATE TRIGGER multi_autoinc
  BEFORE INSERT ON my_table
  FOR EACH ROW
  EXECUTE FUNCTION autoinc('col1', 'seq1', 'col2', 'seq2');

Last Modified 2026-03-12: add pg extension catalog (95749bf)