IBM Power Ideas Portal
This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Power Systems products, including IBM i. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).
Shape the future of IBM!
We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:
Search existing ideas
Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,
Post your ideas
Post an idea.
Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.
Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.
Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use
Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.
IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.
ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.
Mmm... I wrote a complete text as why ROWID is not a solution but it seems to be lost, anyway recapping again...
- ROWID's are actually SQLUDT's with all the limitations they have (requires cast which is not natural)
- There doesn't seem to be an identity_val_local version for rowid's (how to obtain last inserted value)
- Can only have a single ROWID column in a table (what about foreign keys invoiceaddress, deliveryaddress, ... for address)
- Need to define foreign keys as VarChar(40) for bit data (not natural and cumbersome)
- SQL join's requires cast (not natural and cumbersome)
- Couldn't fine how to insert a value via RSS (apart from manually copying the hex value and using rowid(x'....')
- ...
I therefore feel ROWID has to many restrictions, is not natural and not a solution (please don't mark the RFE as such). I still feel that proper UUID as in other databases (with the same ease of use as an identity column with native data type) is essential in a modern databaase.
IBM believes that the request as described has an existing solution.
IBM i has a data type called ROWID that provides a unique value, similar to a UUID. Part of its uniqueness includes a system ID, so it is unique between IBM i systems as well. A table can have a ROWID column that is GENERATED ALWAYS, similar to an identity column.
The CEAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a MEDIUM priority requirement that should be addressed.
Background: The COMMON Europe Advisory Council (CEAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CEAC has a crucial role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your RFE.
To find out how CEAC help to shape the future of IBM i, see CEAC @ ibm.biz/BdYSYj and the article "The Five Hottest IBM i RFEs Of The Quarter" at ibm.biz/BdYSZT
Therese Eaton – CEAC Program Manager, IBM
I don't see how Overriding User/System value is of any help as the data type still remains INT for the identity column. The purpose of Overriding User/System value is when using datastructures on the insert/update statements.
I could define a standard (Var)Char column and store the GUID myself but then I loose the functionality of the identity column completely.
Wow, no edit feature for comments, just like Twitter! LOL. *NOT the same, clearly...
This is a very good request.
Having said that, you do know about the Overriding System Value and Overriding User Value (note the same, clearly) could help with todays. Needs.