How to create id with AUTO_INCREMENT on Oracle?

Question

It appears that there is no concept of AUTO_INCREMENT in Oracle, up until and including version 11g.

How can I create a column that behaves like auto increment in Or

Answer 1

In Oracle 12c onward you could do something like,

CREATE TABLE MAPS
(
  MAP_ID INTEGER GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY (START WITH 1 INCREMENT BY 1) NOT NULL,
  MAP_NAME VARCHAR(24) NOT NULL,
  UNIQUE (MAP_ID, MAP_NAME)
);

---

And in Oracle (Pre 12c).

-- create table
CREATE TABLE MAPS
(
  MAP_ID INTEGER NOT NULL ,
  MAP_NAME VARCHAR(24) NOT NULL,
  UNIQUE (MAP_ID, MAP_NAME)
);

-- create sequence
CREATE SEQUENCE MAPS_SEQ;

-- create tigger using the sequence
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER MAPS_TRG 
BEFORE INSERT ON MAPS 
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (new.MAP_ID IS NULL)
BEGIN
  SELECT MAPS_SEQ.NEXTVAL
  INTO   :new.MAP_ID
  FROM   dual;
END;
/