Kevin, You can do it with a Unix timestamp, but that would just confuse the issue. Have you considered using two fields instead of one? An article ID and and article sub-ID would be retrieved as article ID = date, and all sub-ID's descending. The first record in the list would contain the highest sub-ID, irregardless of gaps. Gerry http://groups.yahoo.com/group/php_and_mysql/ On 3/7/06, Kevin Murphy <php@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Well, part of the issue is that I want to be able to use this as part > of the link: > > /news.php?article=2006-03-05a > /news.php?article=2006-03-05b > > which i will eventually do a htacess rewrite to make it look like > > /news/2006-03-05a.php > /news/2006-03-05a.php > > I don't think I can do that with just the Unix timestamp. > > On Mar 7, 2006, at 4:56 PM, Al wrote: > > > Kevin Murphy wrote: > >> I'm trying to set up an ID field that works like this for news > >> articles that are posted to a website. > >> 2006-03-05a > >> 2006-03-05b > >> I know how to generate the date, and I am pretty sure I can > >> generate the letter code based on counting the number of rows and > >> then assigning the next letter (we will never have more than 26 in > >> a day... usually its closer to 1 or 2 per day). > >> The problem is if there has been something deleted. > >> 2006-03-05a > >> 2006-03-05c > >> If I then Count the rows with this date I get an answer of 2, and > >> so the next letter should be "c" but there already is a "c" > >> because "b" got deleted. > >> So, is there any way of generating this style ID number > >> automatically? > >> --Kevin Murphy > >> Webmaster - Information and Marketing Services > >> Western Nevada Community College > >> www.wncc.edu > >> (775) 445-3326 > > > > > > Why not simply use the Unix time stamp. time() If more than one can > > arrive within the same second, append a letter. > > > > If users need to see the key, use date() to decode it for them > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > -- Gerry http://portal.danen.org/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
