oracle sequences

[jyoti]

I am making use of a oracle sequence(seq_id).The values from the sequence serve as primary key for another table(names).In a servlet I am inserting values in the names table using a preparedstatement instance(ps).To set the value for the ID column of names table I use ps.setString(1,seq_id.nextval).Now I want to get the inserted ID value from names(keeping in mind that there is no other primary key in the names table) so that I can pass this value to the next servlet.
Plz tell me if there is a way to retrieve the inserted ID value in this case.Is there any method like ps.getParameter or something to retrieve the values provided to ps?

[chazzy]

hey.

just to clarify your question, you're not populating the table via trigger then right? that's typically the favored approach but either work actually.

anyways, there's a before insert way and an after insert way of getting the id, i'll describe them both.

- after insert: select max(id-column) from your-table; this assumes that your sequence grows, not shrinks. (if it shrinks use min) and parse the result set.
- before insert, get the id from the sequence via select sequence_name.nextval from dual; and insert that value. i don't usually recommend this method unless it's for a smaller system.

other than that, I don't think there's anything special in the JDBC that is for handling sequence generation. there might be something native to oracle though, i'd check on OTN.