Question

Below is the code I am using to save a record in the database and then get the generated primary key.

public void save(User user) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Object[] args = { user.getFirstname(), user.getLastname(),
            user.getEmail() };
    int[] types = { Types.VARCHAR, Types.VARCHAR, Types.VARCHAR };

    SqlUpdate su = new SqlUpdate();

    su.setJdbcTemplate(getJdbcTemplate());
    su.setSql(QUERY_SAVE);

    setSqlTypes(su, types);

    su.setReturnGeneratedKeys(true);
    su.compile();

    KeyHolder keyHolder = new GeneratedKeyHolder();

    su.update(args, keyHolder);

    int id = keyHolder.getKey().intValue();

    if (su.isReturnGeneratedKeys()) {
        user.setId(id);
    } else {
        throw new RuntimeException("No key generated for insert statement");
    }
}

But its not working, It gives me following error.

The generated key is not of a supported numeric type. Unable to cast [oracle.sql.ROWID] to [java.lang.Number]

The row is being inserted in the database properly. As well I could get the generataed primary key when using MS SQL database but the same code is not working with the ORACLE 11G.

Please help.

Answer 1

As in the comment, oracle rowid’s are alpha numerical so can’t be cast to an int.

Besides that, you should not use the generated rowid anywhere in your code. This is not the primary key that you defined on the table.

MS SQL has the option to declare a column as a primary key which auto-increments. This is a functionality that does not work in oracle.

What I always do (regardless if the db supports auto-increment) is the following:

select sequenceName.nextval from dual

The value returned by the previous statement is used as the primary key for the insert statement.

insert into something (pk, ...) values (:pk,:.....)

That way we always have the pk after the insert.