Setting or Resetting Generator Values

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SET GENERATOR sets a starting value for a newly created generator, or resets the value of an existing generator. The new value for the generator, <int>, can be an integer from –2⁶³ to 2⁶³– 1. When the GEN_ID() function is called, that value is <int> plus the increment specified in the GEN_ID() <step> parameter.

The syntax for SET GENERATOR is:

SET GENERATOR NAME TO int;

The following statement sets a generator value to 1,000:

SET GENERATOR CUST_NO_GEN TO 1000;

Important: Don’t reset a generator unless you are certain that duplicate numbers will not occur. For example, a generators are often used to assign a number to a column that has PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE integrity constraints. If you reset such a generator so that it generates duplicates of existing column values, all subsequent insertions and updates fail with a “Duplicate key” error message.