another MySQL question

Anon

I need to know how to get the VERY last row in a MySQL database if I don't know how many rows are in it or what the last value of that row is. I have no clue what so ever on how to do it, Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Anon

Try using mysql_num_rows to get the number of rows your query (Select * from table_name) found.

Then use the int found by mysql_num_rows in a mysql_data_seek command followed by a
mysql_fetch_row command.

See www.php.net for more details on how to use the above functions.

Anon

You're asking a question that cannot be answered in general.

SQL databases provide no inherent ordering, so the question
is only meaningful if you provide the ordering by specifying
the column and the relationship, e.g. 'select max(column) from
table'.

Anon

Why dont you just do a "ORDER BY whatever_you_use DESC" at the end... that will put in in reverse order.. then just mysql_fetch_array once and that will be the last row....

Andreas

Anon

How do you define the "last row"??? Is it the one with the newest or oldest date? The one with the letter Z...The database just stores the data in any order, you have to tell it what comes first and last...

If you do ten inserts, 1,2,3,4...10. Then read the data, it'll probably be in order 1-10. But this isn't guaranteed over time. It could change or the database structure could change or whatever. That's why you always use a ORDER BY or GROUP BY or date/time if you want the data in a specific order. Don't just rely on how it was put in there..

Hope that helps...

---John Holmes...

Anon

/
Why dont you just do a "ORDER BY whatever_you_use DESC" at the end... that will put in in reverse order.. then just mysql_fetch_array once and that will be the last row....
/
this will work fine, but add a
"LIMIT 1, 1" at the end, so the query will only return one row. saves space and speed

joe

Anon

Wait... when I post something new to the database, dosen't it post on the first line? or am I mistaking...

Anon

When you insert a new row, the database stores it wherever it feels like, in whatever order happens to be convenient for it (or, for all we know, inconvenient for it--there are certainly masochistic programming languages around, so why not masochistic dbms?) Furthermore, the rules of SQL don't even guarantee that, in the absence of an ORDER BY clause, the dbms returns rows in the same order each time you make a query.