Postgresql Duplicate Key Violates Unique Constraint
I Have a Question I Know This Was Posted Many Times but I Didn't Find an Answer to My Problem. the Problem Is That I Have a Table and a Column "Id" I Want It...
I have a question I know this was posted many times but I didn't find an answer to my problem. The problem is that I have a table and a column "id" I want it to be unique number just as normal. This type of column is serial and the next value after each insert is coming from a sequence so everything seems to be all right but it still sometimes shows this error. I don't know why. In the documentation, it says the sequence is foolproof and always works. If I add a UNIQUE constraint to that column will it help? I worked before many times on Postres but this error is showing for me for the first time. I did everything as normal and I never had this problem before. Can you help me to find the answer that can be used in the future for all tables that will be created? Let's say we have something easy like this:
CREATE TABLE comments
(
id serial NOT NULL,
some_column text NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT id_pkey PRIMARY KEY (id)
)
WITH (
OIDS=FALSE
);
ALTER TABLE interesting.comments OWNER TO postgres;
If i add:
ALTER TABLE comments ADD CONSTRAINT id_id_key UNIQUE(id)
Will if be enough or is there some other thing that should be done?
12 Answers
This article explains that your sequence might be out of sync and that you have to manually bring it back in sync.
An excerpt from the article in case the URL changes:
If you get this message when trying to insert data into a PostgreSQL database:
ERROR: duplicate key violates unique constraint
That likely means that the primary key sequence in the table you're working with has somehow become out of sync, likely because of a mass import process (or something along those lines). Call it a "bug by design", but it seems that you have to manually reset the a primary key index after restoring from a dump file. At any rate, to see if your values are out of sync, run these two commands:
SELECT MAX(the_primary_key) FROM the_table;
SELECT nextval('the_primary_key_sequence');
If the first value is higher than the second value, your sequence is out of sync. Back up your PG database (just in case), then run this command:
SELECT setval('the_primary_key_sequence', (SELECT MAX(the_primary_key) FROM the_table)+1);
That will set the sequence to the next available value that's higher than any existing primary key in the sequence.
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I also encountered this problem and the solution proposed by @adamo was basically the right solution. However, I had to invest a lot of time in the details, which is why I am now writing a new answer in order to save this time for others.
David Miller brings 15 years of experience in global economics, personal finance strategy, and market dynamics. He specializes in turning complex economic trends into actionable insights for everyday readers.
