[sql] How to create an Oracle sequence starting with max value from a table?

Trying to create a sequence in Oracle that starts with the max value from a specific table. Why does this not work?

CREATE SEQUENCE transaction_sequence
  MINVALUE 0
  START WITH (SELECT MAX(trans_seq_no)
     FROM TRANSACTION_LOG) 
  INCREMENT BY 1
  CACHE 20;

Based on Ivan Laharnar with less code and simplier:

declare
    lastSeq number;
begin
    SELECT MAX(ID) + 1 INTO lastSeq FROM <TABLE_NAME>;
    if lastSeq IS NULL then lastSeq := 1; end if;
    execute immediate 'CREATE SEQUENCE <SEQUENCE_NAME> INCREMENT BY 1 START WITH ' || lastSeq || ' MAXVALUE 999999999 MINVALUE 1 NOCACHE';
end;

Bear in mid, the MAX value will only be the maximum of committed values. It might return 1234, and you may need to consider that someone has already inserted 1235 but not committed.

use dynamic sql

BEGIN
            DECLARE
            maxId NUMBER;
              BEGIN
              SELECT MAX(id)+1
              INTO maxId
              FROM table_name;          
              execute immediate('CREATE SEQUENCE sequane_name MINVALUE '||maxId||' START WITH '||maxId||' INCREMENT BY 1 NOCACHE NOCYCLE');
              END;
END;

Here I have my example which works just fine:

declare
 ex number;
begin
  select MAX(MAX_FK_ID)  + 1 into ex from TABLE;
  If ex > 0 then
    begin
            execute immediate 'DROP SEQUENCE SQ_NAME';
      exception when others then
        null;
    end;
    execute immediate 'CREATE SEQUENCE SQ_NAME INCREMENT BY 1 START WITH ' || ex || ' NOCYCLE CACHE 20 NOORDER';
  end if;
end;

You can't use a subselect inside a CREATE SEQUENCE statement. You'll have to select the value beforehand.

If you can use PL/SQL, try (EDIT: Incorporates Neil's xlnt suggestion to start at next higher value):

SELECT 'CREATE SEQUENCE transaction_sequence MINVALUE 0 START WITH '||MAX(trans_seq_no)+1||' INCREMENT BY 1 CACHE 20'
  INTO v_sql
  FROM transaction_log;

EXECUTE IMMEDIATE v_sql;

Another point to consider: By setting the CACHE parameter to 20, you run the risk of losing up to 19 values in your sequence if the database goes down. CACHEd values are lost on database restarts. Unless you're hitting the sequence very often, or, you don't care that much about gaps, I'd set it to 1.

One final nit: the values you specified for CACHE and INCREMENT BY are the defaults. You can leave them off and get the same result.

DECLARE
    v_max NUMBER;
BEGIN
    SELECT (NVL (MAX (<COLUMN_NAME>), 0) + 1) INTO v_max FROM <TABLE_NAME>;
    EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'CREATE SEQUENCE <SEQUENCE_NAME> INCREMENT BY 1 START WITH ' || v_max || ' NOCYCLE CACHE 20 NOORDER';
END;