[postgresql] Adding 'serial' to existing column in Postgres

I have a small table (~30 rows) in my Postgres 9.0 database with an integer ID field (the primary key) which currently contains unique sequential integers starting at 1, but which was not created using the 'serial' keyword.

How can I alter this table such that from now on inserts to this table will cause this field to behave as if it had been created with 'serial' as a type?

TL;DR

Here's a version where you don't need a human to read a value and type it out themselves.

CREATE SEQUENCE foo_a_seq OWNED BY foo.a;
SELECT setval('foo_a_seq', coalesce(max(a), 0) + 1, false) FROM foo;
ALTER TABLE foo ALTER COLUMN a SET DEFAULT nextval('foo_a_seq'); 

Another option would be to employ the reusable Function shared at the end of this answer.

A non-interactive solution

Just adding to the other two answers, for those of us who need to have these Sequences created by a non-interactive script, while patching a live-ish DB for instance.

That is, when you don't wanna SELECT the value manually and type it yourself into a subsequent CREATE statement.

In short, you can not do:

CREATE SEQUENCE foo_a_seq
    START WITH ( SELECT max(a) + 1 FROM foo );

... since the START [WITH] clause in CREATE SEQUENCE expects a value, not a subquery.

Note: As a rule of thumb, that applies to all non-CRUD (i.e.: anything other than INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE) statements in pgSQL AFAIK.

However, setval() does! Thus, the following is absolutely fine:

SELECT setval('foo_a_seq', max(a)) FROM foo;

If there's no data and you don't (want to) know about it, use coalesce() to set the default value:

SELECT setval('foo_a_seq', coalesce(max(a), 0)) FROM foo;
--                         ^      ^         ^
--                       defaults to:       0

However, having the current sequence value set to 0 is clumsy, if not illegal.
Using the three-parameter form of setval would be more appropriate:

--                                             vvv
SELECT setval('foo_a_seq', coalesce(max(a), 0) + 1, false) FROM foo;
--                                                  ^   ^
--                                                is_called

Setting the optional third parameter of setval to false will prevent the next nextval from advancing the sequence before returning a value, and thus:

the next nextval will return exactly the specified value, and sequence advancement commences with the following nextval.

— from this entry in the documentation

On an unrelated note, you also can specify the column owning the Sequence directly with CREATE, you don't have to alter it later:

CREATE SEQUENCE foo_a_seq OWNED BY foo.a;

In summary:

CREATE SEQUENCE foo_a_seq OWNED BY foo.a;
SELECT setval('foo_a_seq', coalesce(max(a), 0) + 1, false) FROM foo;
ALTER TABLE foo ALTER COLUMN a SET DEFAULT nextval('foo_a_seq'); 

Using a Function

Alternatively, if you're planning on doing this for multiple columns, you could opt for using an actual Function.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION make_into_serial(table_name TEXT, column_name TEXT) RETURNS INTEGER AS $$
DECLARE
    start_with INTEGER;
    sequence_name TEXT;
BEGIN
    sequence_name := table_name || '_' || column_name || '_seq';
    EXECUTE 'SELECT coalesce(max(' || column_name || '), 0) + 1 FROM ' || table_name
            INTO start_with;
    EXECUTE 'CREATE SEQUENCE ' || sequence_name ||
            ' START WITH ' || start_with ||
            ' OWNED BY ' || table_name || '.' || column_name;
    EXECUTE 'ALTER TABLE ' || table_name || ' ALTER COLUMN ' || column_name ||
            ' SET DEFAULT nextVal(''' || sequence_name || ''')';
    RETURN start_with;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;

Use it like so:

INSERT INTO foo (data) VALUES ('asdf');
-- ERROR: null value in column "a" violates not-null constraint

SELECT make_into_serial('foo', 'a');
INSERT INTO foo (data) VALUES ('asdf');
-- OK: 1 row(s) affected

You can also use START WITH to start a sequence from a particular point, although setval accomplishes the same thing, as in Euler's answer, eg,

SELECT MAX(a) + 1 FROM foo;
CREATE SEQUENCE foo_a_seq START WITH 12345; -- replace 12345 with max above
ALTER TABLE foo ALTER COLUMN a SET DEFAULT nextval('foo_a_seq');