How to use %ROWTYPE when inserting into Oracle table with identity column?

Question

I have an Oracle 12c database with a table containing an identity column:

CREATE TABLE foo (
  id   NUMBER  GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
  bar  NUMBER
)

Now I want to insert into the table using PL/SQL. Since in practice the table has many columns, I use %ROWTYPE:

DECLARE
  x foo%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
  x.bar := 3;
  INSERT INTO foo VALUES x;
END;

However, it give me this error:

ORA-32795: cannot insert into a generated always identity column
ORA-06512: at line 5

Since it is very good for code readability and maintainability, I do not want to stop using %ROWTYPE. Since I under no circumstances want to allow anything but the automatically generated ID's I do not want to lift the GENERATED ALWAYS restriction.

This article suggests that the only way to be able to use %ROWTYPE is to switch to GENERATED BY DEFAULT ON NULL. Is there no other way to fix this?

Answer 1

The only thing I can think of, since you're on 12c is to make the identity column INVISIBLE, like the code below.

The problem is that it makes getting a %ROWTYPE with the id a little more difficult, but it's doable.

Of course, it may also confuse other people using your table to not see a primary key!

I don't think I'd do this, but it is an answer to your question, for what that's worth.

DROP TABLE t;

CREATE TABLE t ( id number invisible generated always as identity, 
                 val varchar2(30));

insert into t (val) values ('A');                 

DECLARE

  record_without_id t%rowtype;
  CURSOR c_with_id IS SELECT t.id, t.* FROM t;
  record_with_id c_with_id%rowtype;

BEGIN
  record_without_id.val := 'C';
  INSERT INTO t VALUES record_without_id;

  -- If you want ID, you must select it explicitly
  SELECT id, t.* INTO record_with_id FROM t WHERE rownum = 1;

  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(record_with_id.id || ', ' || record_with_id.val);
END;
/

SELECT id, val FROM t;    

Answer 2

You can create a view and insert there:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW V_FOO AS
SELECT BAR -- all columns apart from virtual columns
FROM foo;

DECLARE
   x V_FOO%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
   x.bar := 3;
   INSERT INTO V_FOO VALUES x;
END;