Definition of Rowid
- Serial or Bigserial rowid
These rowids are fields in a table and are assigned to tables created with the WITH ROWID option.
- Internal rowid
The database server identifies each data row in a table with a unique internal rowid. This rowid identifies the location of the row within the table.
To obtain the internal rowids for a table, use the oncheck -pD option. For more information, see oncheck -cd and oncheck -cD commands: Check pages.
In a nonfragmented table, the term rowid refers to a unique 4 or 8-byte integer that defines the physical location of the row in the table. The page that contains the first byte of the data row is the page that is specified by the rowid. This page is called the data row home page. The rowid also indicates the slot number on the page where the first bye of the row can be found.
Fragmented tables can also have rowids, but they are implemented in a different way. For more information on this topic, see Rows in Fragmented Tables.