Generate Order Number

[wilhud]

Hello,

I was wondering what the best way would be to generate an order number. All orders are being entered into a mysql database with an auto incremented id called...

order_id

Preferably, I'd like to have an order number that looks something like this...

NCS-00000112

Is it possible to have mysql automatically assign a field a number like this? Or do I need to do it in php? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Wil

[altexis]

You'd have to use the classic Auto Increment numbers and make your NCS-XXX numbers by PHP.

First create a record to get your Auto Increment number and then update the database with your NCS-XXX number

I am not sure if there is any trick using transactions?? maybe someone else can add on this.

However, if I were you I'd use this NCS-XXX only for presentation purposes, and keep a simple number for my internal computations.

[wilhud]

Thanks altexis,

That's what I'll do. As for formatting the number, here's what I did...

$id_num = 5;
$order_num = sprintf("NSC-%010d", $id_num);
echo $order_num;

That gives me a number like...

NSC-0000000005

So if the $id_num is 2044 then the zero spaces will account for the larger id number and give me...

NSC-0000002044

Figured I'd post it, in case anyone else needed something similar. Thanks again!

Wil