I got lost in the mix of threads, so here is my input on the situation. On Thu, Dec 15, 2005 at 09:53:46AM -0500, Rahul S. Johari wrote: > I want to assign a 4 Digit ID with leading zeros to each record added using > a form I have created. > > The PHP scripts does two things: > (a) It adds the data to a mySQL table > (b) it generates a CSV file with the data > > The 4 Digit ID (beginning from 0001) will be used in two places: > (a) It will be the ID for the record in the mySQL table, instead of the > usual ID that we create in mySQL. It will be a Primary Key, Not Null, > Auto_Increment > (b) It will also be the filename for the CSV file. > > So basically it has to match the record adding in the mySQL table and the > filename for the CSV. There seems to be a design flaw with this. As mentioned, well you dont expect to have over 9999 entries, you simply cant rely on the auto_increment to deal with this as it easily can get over the number with only one record. If 4 chars is an issue then i would avoid using the auto_increment as the Primary key. As Far as making sure that the file is written as the current specifications call for the leading zero's is a virtual concept. Consider: The query to get the record with and ID of 0001: select * from table where id = 0001 This since 0001 is the same as 1 there really isn't any meaning behind the textual 0001. A result from an auto_increment that is just '1' can easily be formated to output as 0001: $file = sprintf('%04s', 1); At this point the only limiting factor is the output of the filename. As far as not expecting the auto_increment value never reaching 10000, when I was 10 years old I thought anyone that was 30 was an old person. HTH, Curt. -- cat .signature: No such file or directory -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php