Looping if id exists

[saint4]

Hi guys. Kind of stuck.

I've written a function that creates an id in a unique manner. Containing letters & numbers ina pre-formatted way.

What I would like is to check that the id has not been issued to someone already. Ie not present in the database. If it is present then it needs to call the function again and loop through the process.

I've tried different things but I'm just really not sure how to do it.

[laserlight]

What I would like is to check that the id has not been issued to someone already. Ie not present in the database. If it is present then it needs to call the function again and loop through the process.

Declare the id column in the database table as unique (should already be the case if it is a primary key). When you get an appropriate error upon an attempt to insert into the database, re-generate the id and attempt an insert again.