The question is pretty much what is there in the title. How can I generate a unique integer value inside an Informix stored procedure? Thanks for taking a look. Best regards.

create a table with serial column and just keep getting a number from it

Well, yes that is what I figured out but I faced one more issue that I ignored in the first place.

There is a table in which I need to insert data into. There is column of my concern that is an integer. There is unique constraint that I want to avoid violating. For that I need unique integral values.

Now what you suggested and what I am doing, will generate unique numbers but that may be there in the table where I am inserting the data.

So the question now is - How do I get a unique integer that is not there in the table's concerned column already and if it is there how to avoid the clash?

Thanks for having a look artemka. Best regards.

if you already have values in the table then why dont you just
select max(your integer number) from the table, add 1 to it and insert the new number back in

will that work for you?

Artemka, I think you think exactly the same way as I do...
I have the same thing:
Is there any danger of exceeding the limited of the integer datatype for this? What is the maximum value an integer can take? What happens when one exceeds that value?

Integer number is up there in the billions or trillions i don’t exactly remember. Good luck exceeding it )))

Cheers

I got this information from IBM informix documentation for IBM Informix Dynamic Server v10.0:
Just for the records...