Auto Increment Problem

[Percadan]

I am using the field "id" with the auto_increment attribute.
If a record is deleted, obviously, that "id" number is deleted.
What would be a efficient way of re-ordering the "id" numbers.
I'm thinking of the old school days where this was one of the problems you got when learning C and PERL. Would the same kind of function apply here, or is there a easier way with PHP.

Thanks for any help.

[eoghain]

Question: Why?

If you are using an auto_increment field that field should be for database use to uniquely identify a row in the table. You shouldn't be using that field for user data. So if you remove the row it doesn't matter that your ID's go 1,2,4,5,9,10. Since they are only internal data that is used by the database and programmer and not the user.

<rant>
I see alot of people trying to use the auto_increment field for ordering there records on a page, or numbering them or some other such thing. This is not what that type of field is for. It's main use is to uniquely identify a row in your table, so you can use it as a foreign key to link to another table. Now most people who use MySQL have no concept of foreign keys (since they aren't a standard part of MySQL), but that is what auto_increment should be used for.
</rant>

Sorry for the rant. If you are trying to use your id field for user data I'd re-think your database design.