MySql Record Sequence

[asunpraise]

I set up primary id field as incrementing auto number. However, whenever I delete a record, the number is deleted and gone, and the rest of the numbers are not in sequence. What should I do to get around that?

Thanks,
Lea

[stolzyboy]

that is correct, once a primary key number, say 11 is deleted, it won't be used again, as far as them being in order, you need to use the order by clause of mysql, if you are just looking thru phpmyadmin or something, they won't always show up in the order in which they were inserted

[asunpraise]

Thanks a lot and sorry, I didn't make myself clear enough. What I need to do is to sequence them like: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,.......... so that when record "4" is deleted, the record "5" will become 4. To report the list of records in the table, I must make them appear in numerical sequence.

[stolzyboy]

if the field is auto_incrementing via mysql, i'm not sure you can change that value, i may be wrong, i am stronger with php than mysql, even so if you delete 5, you would have

1
2
3
4
6
7
8
9

using the order by clause would keep them in that order